Also, is white wire positive or negative? Black and white are used all the time in household wiring, and in that case the black is always connected to hot, white to ground. Buy good quality 16 or 14 gauge copper speaker wire and you'll be fine. To find the right wires on a speaker, check to see which colors you have. If your runs are longer, go with the 14 guage. However you are unlikely to damage the speakers by swaping negative and positive. In dealing with speaker wires, the positive speaker wire will be silver in color. For those unmarked wires, you can first try to identify the polarity by looking at physical characteristics like color or texture. Usually* the wire with the white stripe or the dashed lines carries the "positive" (+) end, while the other, unmarked wire carries the "negative" (-) end. P.S. "I'm adapting a transformer for the purpose of electrolysis rust removal, thus needed to identify polarity on the, "My son was revising for an exam and needed his laptop in the car journey of 8 hours. You may see a copper wire instead of a green wire for the ground. This is your positive wire. If both wires are black but one has a white stripe, the striped wire is negative, while the plain black wire is positive. Ricardo Mitchell. If your wire has light-colored insulation, this stripe or dash may be dark. If there is no reading, first check that the alligator clips are tightly secured to the wires. In other words if you would wire the striped wire to the red on your speaker connection you would wire the striped wire to the red on your receiver connection also. For example, if you have a cable with a black-and-white-striped wire as well as a solid-color wire, connect the black-and-white-striped wire to the negative terminal at each end and the solid-color wire to the positive terminals. Never use an analog multimeter if you aren’t sure which wire is positive vs. negative. Turn the component, such as a speaker, around to locate the two connection terminals. Feel the other wire which is smooth. Do not use an analog multimeter to test polarity. Still have questions? The positive speaker wire is a solid color, your negative wire should have a stripe on it. If the tester shows voltage, the wire touching the red terminal is the one that has power. Look at the Insulation wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. The positive wire may have small positive (“+”) symbols and/or wire gauge info printed on it An imprint or molded stripe is made in the positive wire’s insulation Of the 5 kinds, imprints can occasionally be a little bit harder to notice so sometimes you … My house came with 2 wall speakers. However, it could be a black cable with a white stripe, my convention wouldn't really stand up, as the no-stripe cable is "more" black. Recognize that the black wire is the positive one, the white wire is the negative one, and the green wire is the ground. Expert Interview. Use a multimeter to test each one. Thanks You may need new leads if there’s still no reading. In either case, if you decide black goes to black and white stripe goes to red. Or, reach out to a mechanic at a local shop or dealership. It's easy enough to hook up the wire without them and it elliminates a potential loose connection at that point. speakers are polar. Click to … You can take it to an electronics store to have the fuses checked, or buy a replacement. Transformer Polarity refers to the relative direction of the induced voltages between the high voltage terminals and the low voltage terminals. There is wiring for both of them. If you want to identify positive and negative wires, keep in mind that appliance plugs have hot wires and neutral sites, rather than positive and negative sides.