Speaker Wire - Which one is correct? (1 Viewer)

[David Ruiz]

Hello All,

here again with yet another newbie question. When I purchased my reciever, it came with a bunch of cable wire that was really thin, and a guy at best buy told me to buy some thicker wire "Monster Cable" so I bought 50 feet of it. NOW, here's my problem, I started hooking it up. These wires DO NOT have any indication of which is red/blue/black/grey/positive/negative (etc.), BUT I have noticed that one side of the wire has "MONSTER XP" written on it, while the other side is just plain. So, I connected the MONSTER XP side to the BLACK connections on my speakers, and BLACK connections on my reciever, then set the plain wires for the red connections on receiver/speakers, but my dad told me that was incorrect. He told me to reverse the wires.

Does it REALLY matter which way the wires are, if you have them hooked up exactly the same, on the reciever/speakers? He also gave me some wire (because I didn't have enough with the 50 feet) that has a WHITE strip on one side, while the other is plain, and I hooked up the White strip to the black connectors on receiver/speakers, but again, he said that the WHITE strip indicated that it would go on the red connectors...again, does it really matter?

 

[RyanDinan]

David,
No, it doesn't matter - You did it correctly
Just as long as you keep the polarity the same on each end ("black" to black, "red" to red), you'll be fine.
The marking on that wire is so you can make sure you have the same ends connected to the same terminals. Some wire is color coded (silver and copper), some has labeling (as in your case), and some wire has different molding on one wire. Just decide which wire is gonna be "black", and keep it that way throughout your system.
-Ryan Dinan

 

[David Ruiz]

Thank you so much!