Speaker Wire Polarity???

Morning!

I am in the middle of setting up a Denon 1909 with some Onkyo 7.1 Speakers.

I have got a load of Belkin 16 gauge speaker wire. However, this isn't coloured, so I was wondering how I kept polarity, or do I not need to worry about +ve to +ve and -ve to -ve?

The fact that the speakers and Amp have + and - signs has me confused!!!!!

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

There should be a ridge one one wire although it can be hard to see.

 

Hi mate - can't see any ridge, but it appears that there is printing on just one side of the cable, so will go off that!

Thanks anyway.

 

Either; the cable is ridged, or one side has a red line, or one side has plusses on or one side has writing on. The important thing is to make sure that you connect + to + and - to -!

 

The point is that, whether you see it or not, one way or another, one of the wire pairs is marked.

Typical marking methods -

1.) one wire is silver, the other wire is copper.

2.) one of the wire pair has one or more raised ridges on it.

3.) there is a line of some color on one of the wire pair.

4.) one of the wire pair will have either printed or embossed writing on it and the other wire of the pair won't.

You can be sure one of the wires is marked, you just need to determine how.

Steve/bluewizard

 

Failing all the above, get a multimeter and a thick black permanent marker, meter continuity and visibly mark the insulation of one core at each end.

 

If you run the auto set up on the 1909 it will tell you if you have any wires mixed up and which speaker is the problem.

 

Thanks for all the info guys - won't be able to check though cause my Amp is not even working!!!!!