This is a quote from the12volt's post "How to identify stereo wiring."
"Turn on the head unit and adjust the volume to a low to moderate level and listen for a bit, then turn off the head unit. Temporarily connect another speaker to the head unit and turn it on and listen again. If the bass increases, the polarity matches that of the first speaker you connected. If the bass decreases after you connect the second speaker, reverse the two leads going to the second speaker."
What principle is at work here? I've never heard that reversing the polarity of one speaker will decrease over all bass.
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'94 Ford Explorer / Kenwood KVT-815DVD / RF Power T1682C 6x8 (all doors) / RF Power T10001 / 12" Kicker L5 (x4) / Optima Yellow Top Battery
When one speaker produces a bass wave, and another speaker produces one 180 degrees out, (reversed speaker leads) the bass will partially cancel, thus weaker or "thinner" bass. This is how you can tell if your speaker leads are out of phase from ONE ANOTHER, but it has nothing to do with absolute phase, which is another thing altogether.
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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
Also note that while not explicit, the note is initially telling you to hook up 1 speaker and then hook up a 2nd speaker in addition to that one, not in place of it.
For a single speaker system polarity is irrelevant to bass - but when 2 or more are in use then everything Haemphyst wrote applies...
d-
douglasabaker wrote:
For a single speaker system polarity is irrelevant to bass -
Like an AM table radio?
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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.