Identifying speaker wires (1 Viewer)

[casjr]

I have a long run of speaker wire in which both wires are identical ... no markings that I can use to establish + and -. Is there a method using a battery to send current down the one of the two wires so that I can figure out when I have both ends of the same wire in order to establish polarity?

 

[Todd Erwin]

Are you sure there isn't something on the insulation on one of the wires?


Most companies will, at the very least, write the specs of the wire very faintly on one of the two wires.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Another common identifier is one of the wires having a rough edge, three or four ridges running with the wire.


If you have some spare wire (or any sort) just connect it to one of the real wires at one end, then bring the other end of the test wire back and check the resistance (using a meter) to each wire on the other end. When the meter jumps you have the same wire. Mark it and use that wire on the same connector on each component. Just so we're on the same page, there's no real +/- wire; you just have to connect the same wire to the same connector on both ends).