Although I do do my fair share of mechanical work I will admit that stereos aren't my strong suit so this might be a pretty easy question with all of you guys with "systems"--what wire goes to what terminal on my new rear speakers? They are pretty standard Pioneer 6X9's (I already have the mounting adapters), the wires on the driver side of the car are (1) yellow and (1) brown and the passenger side has (1) dark blue and (1) light blue. The two prongs on the bottom of the speakers aren't marked in any way (positive/negative, in/out, etc.) but it does make a difference which wire is hooked up to which terminal, correct? Thanks in advance. Adam
Yes, it matters. There is a postive and a neg. terminal. If hooked up correctly, your speakers would be in phase, incorrectly out of phase. What does this mean? Well, on a strong base note the cone of the speaker should extend, however, if it's hooked up backwards it retracts. Take a AA battery and touch it to the two terminals, if the cone move out you have ID the terminals correctly (Look at the + and - on the battery) if it retracks your backwards. If you can't ID which is postive and which is neg from the wires, you'll have to expriment. You will not hurt anything by hooking them up backwards. One way will sound good the other bad. Play a song with some heavy bass notes. (The only thing rap is good for). Set you finger on the speaker cone (lightly). When a base note is hit, the cone should move out. When they both move out, it's hookd up correctly. Rich
If you have a stock head unit a wiring diagram will tell you which is positive and which is negative. If the radio has been updated it depends on how the installer wired it. The speakers will sometimes have a very small + and - stamp at the connectors look closely. If they aren't marked you can take a 9 volt battery and hook it up to the speakers. One way will make the cone move away from the magnet, one towards. Most speakers move away from the magnet, so when the cone moves away you have your positive and negative correct. But it's OK. Speakers will only sound a little worse if wired up backwards. Try it one way and listen, try the other way and leave it whichever way sounds best to you. Good luck. John
