Speaker Drivers

[Gary]

.......... and for that matter, tweeters, mid's, etc. ........

I am in the midle of a DIY project where I am rewiring my speakers. More specifically, I'm replacing the internal wire from the box to the crossover, from the crossover to the drivers, etc. I did this once already with heavier gage copper wire. A noticeable improvement (bigger sound stage, depth, better bass response, etc.)!

Now I am doing it again with copper / silver coated wire which would match my speaker cables (also copper / silver).

All these drivers (tweeter / mid / bass) have - of course - two leads. A common lead from the crossover to each driver in turn (i.e.: crossover to tweeter to mid to bass to crossover) and a specific lead which goes from the crossover to the tweeter or driver. In my case there are three of these leads: Tweeter, mid and bass.

There is no indication of a + / - on the driver or tweeter. Does it matter how you hook these up? Is there a specific (but not indicated) + / - (or positive and negative) on a driver?

Thanks!

:confused:

[Patrick M]

Originally posted by Gary
There is no indication of a + / - on the driver or tweeter. Does it matter how you hook these up? Is there a specific (but not indicated) + / - (or positive and negative) on a driver?

Yes, it does. Generally, red is +, and black is -. The leads on the drivers should be marked somehow. In the case of my DIY woofers, they just had a "+" beside one of the leads.

The internal wiring you described sound wacky -- the wires are going to each driver, and from one driver to another?

[Gary]

Originally posted by Patrick M


Yes, it does. Generally, red is +, and black is -. The leads on the drivers should be marked somehow. In the case of my DIY woofers, they just had a "+" beside one of the leads.



Hmmmmm, OK. They are not marked but I can determine which ones are which as it's given away by the positioning of the drivers. Or there may be a red wire and a green wire to each driver.... I'll have to check.





The internal wiring you described sound wacky -- the wires are going to each driver, and from one driver to another?

Yessiree! One wire as follows:

Crossover to Tweeter
Crossover to mid
Crossover to bass

Last common wire from (lets see now) tweeter to mid to bass to crossover.

And from box to crossover.

I think I may have got it wrong above. :o

Thanks for the + / - info. / confirmation. I'll recheck tonight!

[Richard Feirstein]

The common wire should be - the wire to each from the crossover should be +. Does not matter so long as each box is wired the same and each driver is kept the same relative to the woofer. :cool: