I bought a set of tweeters yesterday, the instructions said to hook the + to +
- to - but the instructions do not say what wire is + or -. The wires out of the speakers are color code one wire is steel colored and the other is copper colored. I need to know what color is + or what color is -

Thanks For Your Help

Rudy graemlins/clonk.gif

Do NOT try the flashlight battery trick to find polarity. The windings on the voice coil are too delicate to handle it. Plus you'll never see the the cone/diapragm move.

Look VERY carefully at the body where the wires enter. You may find a microscopic + or - molded in the housing. OR.. If one of the leads goes to a capacitor that's the pos or +.

(On the tweets polarity isn't a huge issue, I've actually gotten better RTA curves having one inverted and one "straight up").

Originally posted by John D:
Do NOT try the flashlight battery trick to find polarity. The windings on the voice coil are too delicate to handle it. Plus you'll never see the the cone/diapragm move.

Look VERY carefully at the body where the wires enter. You may find a microscopic + or - molded in the housing. OR.. If one of the leads goes to a capacitor that's the pos or +.

(On the tweets polarity isn't a huge issue, I've actually gotten better RTA curves having one inverted and one "straight up"). I've used the battery technique on many, many speakers, for over 40 years and have NEVER lost a speaker! AND, you CAN see, if not feel, the cone move. Use a 1 1/2 volt D cell....not a 9 volt battery. If the cone moves outward, the terminal that the positve side of the battery is connected to is the + side.

I should have said "on Tweeters" don't use the battery trick. graemlins/clonk.gif The little car-fi tweets won't take much abuse. I've toasted a few Rockfords... now if we're talking EV DH-7's or Altec 909's, that's a different story.

Normaly the copper one is+ and the steel one is- .

Thanks everybody, the tweeters are in and install, and sounds great.

66 El camino [with sound]

Rudy graemlins/hurray.gif