Teating Speakers...help please
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From: South Central Texas Baby!
Teating Speakers...help please So tonight I made a journey over to best buy to look for replacement 6 1/2" speakers for the ones that are blown in my 2000 silverado. My intentions were to originally buy the apline sps-600 series. However, my attention was diverted over to a set of P/A dxi650, which sounded great on their demo. Well, it just so happenes that the Polks were for sale for like $25 cheaper (both originally priced same) than the Alpines. Using my superior sense of logic, I decided to purchase a set of 4x6s' to go in the rear...afterall, they were on sale too. Now, thinking of all this money I'm saving I started to think about the original head unit that I WAS planning to keep. But those poor Polks...their rms rating greatly exceeds that of a GM HU. I need better...NO!!! They need better! So I picked up a kdc-mp345u, which of cousre was on sale. After adapters,mounts, atteannae 'dapters etc.. Out the door at $333.
Now for my question. Tomorrow (weather fairing), I will begin my install. I want to test my speakers with a battery to figure out + and -, so I can hook everything up the right time, ONCE, and br done. However, I forgot how to do this, and what to look for. You see where I'm going with this. So, yes, someone please spell it out for me word for word.
My truck has sounded like
for the past several years...I don't even remember what it originally sounded like, so I'm pretty excited.
Now for my question. Tomorrow (weather fairing), I will begin my install. I want to test my speakers with a battery to figure out + and -, so I can hook everything up the right time, ONCE, and br done. However, I forgot how to do this, and what to look for. You see where I'm going with this. So, yes, someone please spell it out for me word for word.
My truck has sounded like
for the past several years...I don't even remember what it originally sounded like, so I'm pretty excited. 
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,330
Likes: 346
From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
Aftermarket speakers will have terminals marked with + and - or perhaps a red dot (positive) to indicate polarity. If they don't, one terminal will be larger than the other - the larger one is positive.
Testing with a battery should be a last resort because it's not good for the voice coil. If you must, connect pieces of wire to each of the terminals on a 9-volt battery then touch the wires to the terminals on the speaker. If you have correct polarity (the positive battery terminal is touching the positive speaker terminal) then the speaker cone will move out. With the polarity reversed the speaker cone will move in.
Testing with a battery should be a last resort because it's not good for the voice coil. If you must, connect pieces of wire to each of the terminals on a 9-volt battery then touch the wires to the terminals on the speaker. If you have correct polarity (the positive battery terminal is touching the positive speaker terminal) then the speaker cone will move out. With the polarity reversed the speaker cone will move in.
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 24,241
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From: Turnin' Wrenches Infractions: 005
Yes do this as White bird has stated, I have done it a million times in the past. Never once has a speaker gotten damaged from it. Remember you must be looking at the cone to see if it moves forward or reverse while the 9v is hooked up, or get an extra set of eyes 
