Technical Seicento speaker connections

[Dystant]

So I fitted some new coaxial speakers in the front, mounted on the standard sei grills.

The connection was different though, so I had to cut the original connector off and twist together the wires and tape them. I wasn't fully sure which wires to connect too though, I looked at the standard connector and saw which side they were connected to and just hooked them up that way, they work which is a good sign, but I heard if these are the wrong way around they will work but be distorted and won't sound as good?

On the passenger side speaker the wires were white and red. I connected the white to the negative and red to the positive.

On the drivers side speaker, the wires were pink and black. I connected the black to negative and pink to positive.

Does anybody know which of the colours are positive/negative? or are the wires that are there installed by a previous owner and are just random wires they found?

Any help would be appreciated, as I just hope they're the right way around and not limiting/harming my new speakers.

Thanks.

Edit;
Whilst I'm here, my stereo head-unit is Pioneer DEH-X3500UI (Continous output of 22Watts). & the speakers are 4" PIONEER TS-E1002i's (Nominal input power of 25Watts).
Were those speakers a good match for my headunit? I saw other speakers with higher Nominal/RMS/Continuous wattage, but I read that getting them as close as possible allows the speakers to work at their best?

 

[rpm711]

Hi,

You could check the stereo itself, pull it out and take note of what wires for the speakers in question are plugged in at the rear. they should be the same coming into the speaker.

The system should have a diagram stuck on the body of it somewhere indicating which is +/- and front and rear.

Hers the link to a manual for the system.

http://www.manualowl.com/p/Pioneer/DEH-X3500UI/Manual/176817

The speaker should be OK with the system, had a quick check........

..system output max 50w x4 which means the system can handle max 50w per speaker (up to 4 speakers)

the speaker seem to be 110w max output

Try using, at least, using bullet type male & female connectors that you crimp onto the wire.

 

[jatkinson]

Im sure there will be + marks on the postive wire and - Marks on the Neg wire if you look close enough

 

[Pep0]

Hi

Speakers are just electro magnets, they wont mind being reversed.
If they have a cross over network that will be tolerant of polarity to work with direct coupled power amps.
Soldering or crimping connectors would be better long term...

Noel

 

[Dystant]

Hi

Speakers are just electro magnets, they wont mind being reversed.
If they have a cross over network that will be tolerant of polarity to work with direct coupled power amps.
Soldering or crimping connectors would be better long term...

Noel

Reversing the connectors causes them to be reversed, and therefore the bass is pushing inwards instead of outwards causing it to be less clear or distorted etc?

What if one is the right way and one if reversed, then they'l sound slightly different and therefore wont be as clear/sound as good as they should.

 

[Pep0]

Reversing the connectors causes them to be reversed, and therefore the bass is pushing inwards instead of outwards causing it to be less clear or distorted etc?

What if one is the right way and one if reversed, then they'l sound slightly different and therefore wont be as clear/sound as good as they should.

A pure bass tone is a sine wave plus and negative. If the amp is capacitor coupled there won't be any DC current in either connection sense.
But both speakers need to be the same e.g. red to plus black to negative to get a good stereo image. I should have made that clear, but some people may prefer an out of phase sound in an auto.

Noel

 

[Honeymonster]

The only time you want to be messing with phase is on the bottom end and the general rule of thumb is to go with whatever sounds loudest. Messing with phase in a non symetrical manor is a bad idea, time alignment is a far better alternative. There are some boys that may be able to tinker with phase to their advantage, but you're talking competition sound quality fairys who set their sytems up with an RTA. As soon as you start your engine and begin cruising down the motorway all this goes out the window.

As for the AC vs DC thing if you think about it AC is really DC for every half of a cycle. However in most cases a cycle is so short and fast it's really quite a rediculous thing to picture.

You can use a 9v (pp3) battery to determine the polarity of a speaker. If it moves outwards the polarity matches the battery, if it moves inwards you have it opposite. As for the head unit end it should be labled although it can be checked with a meter.

But in real world conditions to notice these kind of differences usually takes a trained ear and high end audio in a car environment.

 

[Airship17]

Car stereos are two channel. Both left speakers carry the same half of the sound (left channel) both rights carry the right channel. Unless it's some fancy ass surround sound deal, which it probably isn't. If you have that feature on your stereo, turn it off before trying the below.

Bass tends to be the same out of both channels. The idea is to get all of the speakers moving in and out at the same time or "in phase". if they are, the bass will sound fat. If they're not, it will sound less bassy.

It doesn't matter if each + wire of each speaker output from the head unit goes to the +on each speaker, or the - on each speaker, as long as they are all the same. If you get one speaker the opposite way round, nothing bad will happen to the stereo, it will just sound crap.

Easiest way is to deal with each end of the car at a time. First, do your best to get all of the speakers wired up the same way round by looking at + and - marks on the stereo and the speakers. Make sure each of the speaker connections on the head unit go to the correct speakers, i.e. check if you fade fwd and back the sound moves fwd and back, and same for left and right. Fix if not correct.

Then, fade all the way forward, make sure the balance is central. See if the bass sounds as fat as it should do with the fwd speakers you have. If not sure, swap the wires on one of the speakers only. If it sounds more beefy now, stick with the new arrangement. If less beefy, swap back to what you had before.

It's important the speakers are installed for this. If they're sitting in free air, it will be hard to tell wtf. They have to be in the panels where they are going to live.

When happy the front is right, fade all the way back, and repeat the process for the rear speakers (or, if you only have front speakers, stop here)

Now, fade central so you can hear all 4. If it sounds great, you're done. If the bass is lacking, or it sounds otherwise weird and hollow, it might be that the front speakers (which you have now got in phase with each other) are unfortunately out of phase with the rears (which are in phase with each other, but opposite phase to the front).

To fix this you have to reverse the connections to both of the speakers at one end of the car (doesn't matter which end, just pick the end that's the least of a pain to get at). If you're not sure if it's right or not, just try it one way then the other and see which way it sounds best. Sadly you must put the speakers back in the panel before you listen, otherwise you may not be able to tell.

Once you have it sounding as fat as possible with all 4 speakers running, you're good.

The above is for a head unit with four speakers on it. Same principles apply for subs and amps, but the method for getting all speakers in phase may vary.

 

[Prawny12009]

using the original speakers and connectors you can put a battery across the wires and watch which direction the cone moves.

when the correct polarity is fed to it the cone should move out, make note of which wire is on the positive of the battery and that is obviously your live.