Testing 1 inch speaker

[JRP]

I have a new Litchfield Station 8 ohm round high bass speaker and Sound Trax sound decoder that I wish to test before I install them.  The test instructions for the decoder tell you to wire the negative and positive terminals of the speaker to the decoder.  But the terminals on the speaker are not marked. 

Is there a way to determine which is positive and negative?  Will I risk damaging the speaker if the wires from the decoder are not correct?

Thanks.

JRP   "Great southwest and Pacific RR"

[Texas Zepher]

But the terminals on the speaker are not marked. ... Is there a way to determine which is positive and negative?

Yes.  Get a 1.5V battery.  Connect one side of the battery to the speaker.  While watching the speaker cone,  touch the other side of the battery to the other connection of the speaker.  If the cone moves out the speaker polarities match that of the battery.  The plus side of the battery will be on the + side of the speaker.  If the speaker cone moves inward the polarities are opposite.

Will I risk damaging the speaker if the wires from the decoder are not correct?

no, the speaker cone will just move the wrong way.

[MisterBeasley]

If you are using a single speaker, then polarity is unimportant.  If you have multiple speakers, then you want them wired the same, so that the sound waves will be "in phase" and not cancel each other out.

[Blind Bruce]

What Mr Beasley said is true with one exception. If both speakers face the same direction they must be wired the same. However, if one faces left and one right then to get better sound they should be wired opposite of one another. Best solution is to try both ways and leave them wired the way they sound best.

[UpNorth]

Between you and I, if you can detect out of phase  on 1" speakers you have my respect. Like he said, single speaker, you don't care about polarity.

[richg1998]

I have a new Litchfield Station 8 ohm round high bass speaker and Sound Trax sound decoder that I wish to test before I install them.  The test instructions for the decoder tell you to wire the negative and positive terminals of the speaker to the decoder.  But the terminals on the speaker are not marked. 

Is there a way to determine which is positive and negative?  Will I risk damaging the speaker if the wires from the decoder are not correct?

Thanks.

JRP   "Great southwest and Pacific RR"

You know by now speaker polarity is not too important for one speaker. You might be interested in this decoder tester. I built one and added a speaker. I can also hook up an external speaker for testing. I usually use the ohms position on a digital voltmeter to check a speaker. I use only SoundTraxx decoders.

http://home.neo.rr.com/mrwithdcc/dtester.html

Rich