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Speaker wiring
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:17 pm
by GAZZA3354
Hiya, i have a 89 318i fitted with a standard radio, the front right footwell speaker has two wires going to it one black and the other black/red, can anyone tell me what one of these two wires is plus or minus please as i am replacing the speakers
Thanks

Re: Speaker wiring
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 1:54 pm
by kam-325i
The colour of the wires dont match up to OEM colours.
you might have to trace back to the head unit to get the phasing right.
Re: Speaker wiring
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 1:55 pm
by Brianmoooore
Doesn't matter in the slightest, as long as all are the same.
Re: Speaker wiring
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:58 am
by GAZZA3354
Thanks forgot to say that one is a small spade connector and the other ia large
Re: Speaker wiring
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:57 am
by Brianmoooore
There's no DC component in a speaker signal, so there's no plus and minus. The drive signal is ideally pure AC, with an equal and opposite amount of positive and negative - any DC component just moves the speaker cone away from its rest position, limiting the dynamic range of the speaker at best, and permanently damaging it at worst.
All that matters is that you connect all the speakers the same way around.
Re: Speaker wiring
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:52 pm
by GAZZA3354
Thanks, much appreciated

Re: Speaker wiring
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:52 pm
by miniblob
You may also find that most car speakers have the larger terminal marked +ve and the smaller terminal marked -ve!!!