If you look at the old speaker and alight the harness up the speakers should say what it + and -

I figured that would have been the case. When I do my doors there will be no use of factory wiring so it won't matter for me, for anyone using factory wiring could you confirm that GD?

As best I could determine the factory speakers had no polairty markings. I did discover that the color codes on the passenger speaker leads were violet w/silver & light green w/silver and on the drivers speaker the leads were violet w/silver & blue w/silver. So I took a leap of faith and proceeded on the basis that the violet w/silver was the hot lead (+) and completed the installation accordingly. Since the speakers are above ground reversing the polarity wouldn't short the system out and as long as they aren' out of phase with one another the sound should be ok unless the crossover has a problem with it. Anyway it sounds better than stock and I can always use them as the basis for future (if any) upgades. Just got off the phone with the ipod interface people and they say that their adapter won't work with the stock radio. If I can't find a suitable cable (know of any?) I may end up shoping for a new head unit. Wouldn't need nav, AM/FM/CD/ipod interface maybe a screen and back up camera compatibility. Amazon's always sending me info on sale items. Any thoughts?

I wondered if that was the case, seemed to odvious for you to be asking which was which. The reason for the polarity on the speakers is so that the positive part of the sine wave is heading to all the speakers at the same time and then the negative part of the sine wave in the opposite direction. If you have polarity reversed then the motor will be driving opposite to the other speakers, or out of phase.

You could try the battery pop test to determine polarity.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-v2Mrand...ech/kb478.html

Oh... I think you meant sine wave not sign wave

^^ wat mike said. i was just about to post the battery test. :D

The polarity of the Polk speakers and crossovers was clearly marked, the problem was that the old speakers and factory source cables (remember I'm using the factory head unit and cables to feed the new Polk speakers) were unmarked making it difficult to know which factory wire was positive and which was negative. In my last post I explained how I "decided" which was positive and which was negative.

Am interested in your thoughts as to a possible affordable ($200-$400) head unit replacement. AM/FM/CD for sure. Navigation is nice but probably not worth the money, I don't need a multi disc CD changer but would need ipod or iphone interface or some sort or the ability to store song files in the head unit or maybe in a thumb drive or a system that functions similar to an ipod/iphone interface for storing music. Essentially I want have lots of music stored in the system. I want to keep functional steering wheel audio controls. Back up camera compatibility, DVD player, touch screen, super high powered audio output, and whatever else is out there are nice but not that important.

i use the pioneer AVH-P3100DVD in my Z and i think those can be had in your price range. it's the earlier model to the P3200DVD. :) check amazon/ebay. i have a rearview camera hooked up on mine.

if you want to find the ground wire for your speakers you can also use your volt/ohm meter and measure between known ground and your speaker wire. your volt meter will tell you when you got continuity with ground... then the other wire is (+). :p

Are you saying one speaker wire is always touching the ground? Does that make sense?

Jueleous,

On many simple systems one of the speaker leads is a grounded (-) lead and one is a hot (+) lead so identifying the positive lead is as simple as using a multi meter to check voltage from each lead to ground, the one with voltage relative to ground is the positive. However since many (most?) newer factory speaker systems are customarily wired "above ground" the standard test can yield similar voltage on both leads. Note that aftermarket systems label all the inputs and outputs as + or - to allow the installer to properly install their components. The car manufacturer often doesn't label these connections because they design the OEM connectors such that they can't be installed incorrectly.

^^ yah....now that i think about it i think the HU speaker wire might be isolated ground...

Kenchan,

Your Pioneer system is at the top of my price range but looks really nice. Were the various adapters and install kits expensive? Do the steering wheel controls still function?

i only use the USB drive (the tiny one in my avatar) and rear view camera but the ipod cable can be had for $60 here:

Pioneer CD-IU50V USB iPod/iPhone Interface Cable for AVH-P3100DVD & DVH-P4100UB in Audio Connection Cables at JR.com

The camera $159

Pioneer ND-BC4 Universal Rear-View Camera in Car Video Devices at JR.com

The PAC-PS for steering wheel control button (yes it works) $40:

Amazon.com: SWI&PS - PAC Steering wheel control interface for Pioneer and Sony NEW Version 1.6.8 with Bluetooth: Electronics

and here are the eagletec USB drives if you want to use these.... smaller the better so that you dont accidentally bump the drive during your shifts (if you have MT). :p

eagletec usb items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

My point was to receive a continuity beep you must have a direct short to ground, and you must have no power going through circuit to test that. On any modern amplifier you would not find a direct path to ground, there are many components between the speaker - terminal and actual ground. This would not allow you to show continuity as the semiconductors would not allow the path to be there.

Now going back way way back I remember connecting only one speaker wire and the other side to the ground, but this is going back like 20 years ago. Modern amps have isolated grounding systems.