Are Your Speakers Wired Correctly?
Filed under Podcasting, Technology
Any system is only as good as the weakest link in the chain and audio systems are certainly no exception to the rule. Assuming that your music system is producing reasonably pleasant sounds, you may never stop to give it a second thought, but with a few simple tests you can check to make sure that your speakers are wired correctly and that you’re getting the best out of your system.
Attaching speakers to your Hi-Fi system usually only requires a few cables. You wouldn’t think that getting these cables mixed up would present much of a problem would you, providing your music plays back OK and no smoke comes out of the system?
Well, under most circumstances you’d be right, with a simple channel mix up being the most likely probable outcome, but if you have a real knack for getting things back to front, then you could have your speakers wired out-of-phase, which while it won’t do any damage, certainly won’t help you to get the best out of your system.
These potential problems are easy to spot with a few simple tests and luckily the corresponding remedies are equally simple.
Left and Right Tests
In the grand scale of things, getting your left and right speakers mixed up is not a major problem. If your left and right speakers are mixed up, your music will still come out in wonderful stereo (providing of course that you’re listening to a stereo track) it’s just that what should be coming out of the left-hand speaker is actually coming out of the right-hand speaker and vice versa.
Record producers and mix engineers spend weeks mixing and producing an album and as part of the process they will decide where in the mix to place certain instruments. So if you have a favourite track that has an instrument panned (music speak for stereo positioning of sounds) to one side, wouldn’t you prefer to listen to it as the artist intended rather than topsy turvey?
You would? Good.
Then try the following two fairly self explanatory tests on your music system. Listening to the left speaker test, you should hear Winnie’s voice coming out of the left hand speaker (or headphone) only and vice versa for the right speaker test.
Left Speaker Test:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Right Speaker Test:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If things don’t go according to plan, then you have either got your speakers wires mixed up (or headphones on the wrong way round), or the audio cabling (shown right) from your playback device to the amplifier crossed over.
Normally audio signal cables (as opposed to speaker cables) are colour coded with the red plug going to the red socket and white to white at each end of the cable.
You will need to check the wiring of your system, rewiring where necessary and then repeat the two tests to make sure that both channels are working and in the correct order.
The following diagram shows how to wire your speakers to your amplifier: 
Balance Test
Now that you’re happy that you have your left and rights sorted out, the next thing to check is your speaker balance.
When you listen to the following test, place your head as centrally as you can between your two speakers; you should hear Winnie coming from the dead centre of your speakers. In this case you are hearing equal amounts of Winnie from both speakers.
Centre Balance Test:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If Winnie sounds to be coming either to the left or right of the centre position, you may need to check to see if your amplifier or system has a balance control. If it does, ensure that the balance control is in the centre position.
If after checking the balance control, things still sounds one sided, you may have a more fundamental problem with your system that requires investigation or professional attention. This could be as simple as a dirty connection or a dodgy interconnecting cable, or if things are worse it could be a more ingrained electronic or speaker problem.
Alternatively, if you can’t pin point the sound as definitely coming from the centre, you may have a phasing problem…
Phasing Test
A phasing problem with speakers is very simple to fix, but can significantly degrade your system’s sonic performance.
Trying to describe how out of phase speakers sound is a little difficult unless you’ve experienced it first hand. You’re likely to hear significantly less bass and instead of producing a strong centre image, the sound appears to stay within the speakers, making things sound rather disconnected.
Listen to the following and you should be able to hear the difference for yourself:
Speaker Phase Test:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Or, download: out-of-phase.mp3 [0’ 07”, 128kB]
If the above test sounds perfectly fine, but the previous centre channel test sounded really odd, then your speakers are out of phase.
Fixing the Problem
Thankfully, while the effect can be quite strange, the fix is really simple.
Pick a speaker, but not both, this must only be done on one speaker. Now swap the two wires on the back of the speaker around. Usually the speaker will have two connections; one black (the negative or – connector) and one red (positive or + connector).
That should be it, job done. Now listen to the centre/balance test and phase test again to confirm that you have everything working hunky dory.
Sit Back and Relax
Now that you have your speakers wired up correctly with your lefts and rights where they should be and no strange out of phase effects, you can lie back, put your feet up and listen to my latest podcast in knowledge of a job well done.
You had no problems; excellent, so there’s no reason not to listen to my latest podcast either! 
Loading ...
Hi
The above is the best article I’ve seen yet on common speaker problems. Your article is both funny and relevent. Thank you.
Bill Grandy
Windsor
Nova Scotia
Canada
WOW, is it just me or is every article on the internet on out of phase speakers out of phase itself?
For wiring speakers up correctly, you do the following (no batteries needed to check for pushing or popping, no swapping the wires, none of that crap):
Hook up a small piece of speaker wire to any of the speaker ports on the reciever/amp(front, rear channel whatever).
Now set your DVM to measure DC (we get the DC equivalent reading of the AC and subsequent polarity or phase).
Now, put the red lead from DVM to the wire thats connected to the red lead port, and do the same for the black lead of the DVM and place it on the wire connected to the black port of your reciever. Now you will get a reading, the numerical part of it you can ignore, what you want is + or – part of it. If its – , that means the rest of your speakers should be connected this exact way. It will show + if you reverse it which means you placed the black lead on the wire connected to red and red lead to wire connected to black, that means you shouldn’t connect the rest of your speakers that way.
So just to clarify if you are still confused:
(this is for your short testing wire you hooked up) If the reading you got while placing red lead to RED port wire and placing black lead to BLACK port wire is a – (negative symbol), then you know how the rest should look like when you place the DVM on the other wires.
That is, if you have a speaker wire coming out from some place in the wall or ceiling, and want to know how your speaker should be hooked up (which wire goes where), place your RED lead of your DVM to one of the wires, and BLACK lead to the remaining wire, if it gives you – (neg) symbol that means the RED lead wire will go to the RED speaker port, so now you know.
Just to add, I’m no expert, but this seems like simple logic to me, so don’t take my “expert” word for it if you know what I mean.
Hmm…looks like I could have complicated it more than I should have.
Here is an ASCII diagram for your test wire:
RED port ——— wire A ——- red lead —————
AMP/RECIEVER DVM reading
BLACK port ——— wire B ——- black lead ———
If DVM reading equals – (neg) then if you measure another “unkown” wire and get -(neg) reading, you know the correct configuration for the speaker.
Now for the unkown wire, place leads on wires until you get this same -(neg) reading, you now know that the red lead corresponds to the wire for the RED port on the reciever, etc…
Unfortunately, not everyone has Digital Volt Meters, or are comfortable with their use, which is why I tried to explain through examples what out-of-phase sounds like and a simple fix to the problem, without resorting to electrical test equipment.
Thanks for your comprehensive response though.
Just wanted to say thanks, my speakers were apparently reversed for the longest time with the balance way off lol
You’re welcome; glad it helped you to improve your system.
Thank you for this article. I stumbled across it when I was reading about Joint Stereo (also a very good article by the way). The audio examples of out-of- & in-phase were so helpful. Apparently, I’ve been fussy/lucky enough when setting up my equipment that I managed to get the speakers in-phase. But I’ve always wondered what out of phase speakers would sound like and now I don’t have to muck around with my wiring … I can simply bookmark your page. Thanks!
Thanks Jason, it’s always nice to know that people find them useful. Thanks for taking the time to leave your comment.
Thanks for an informative article. “Phase” is a concept that a lot of folks find hard to grasp. With speaker systems, basically you want the cones of each speaker to be moving in the same direction at the same time. If they’re wired backwards, one speaker cone is moving in the exact opposite direction of the other at any given moment. Instead of reinforcing each other, they tend to cancel each other out.
Where is gets even more complicated is when you’re dealing with balanced audio inputs, as with pro sound and broadcast. Instead of one signal wire and one ground, balanced audio lines have two signal wires, + and a -, plus ground. This is good in that since both signals are referenced to ground but in opposite (instantaneous) polarity, any noise or interference induced into the cable externally gets canceled out. Balanced signals are generally higher in amplitude which also decreases the noise level (or more correctly, increases the signal-to-noise ratio. The down side is you have to be very careful to keep the phase aligned all through the signal processing chain, including limiters, amps, etc. Often the only way to do it properly is to put a scope on the final audio outputs, and of course the speaker phase affects the final sound as well. Ironically, it is possible to mis-wire a system so that if the phase is flipped an even number of times throughout the chain, it winds up being back in phase again at the output … a rare case of two wrongs making a right!
In this case two wrongs can indeed make a right, you just need to track the number of wrongs you’re making
Thank you: A swift, helpful, and effective set of tests.
Thank you! This exactly what I was looking for.
Further to mine of 2nd June, thank you again! Not just a test: a diagnostic tool. !My Windows recently died, and I had never properly configured my Linux alternative. Struggling to get radio-casts working on it, your wonderful article gave me the vital clue: Flash blocked.
I can’t seem to tell the difference between in phase and out of phase. I tried to switch the wires on the right speaker but there was still no difference between the woman’s voice samples. I did seem to notice less bass when playing music after swapping the wires.
Anyone got a suggestion to my problem?
If you’re noticing less bass, then I would say that is the out of out of phase of the two options. When you play the out of phase test, try to position your head centrally between the two speakers as this is where the effect will be most apparent.
To Younes, re phasing:
You might like to try what I did. I put the two speakers not in the usual stereo listening position, but side-by-side as close as possible, so that the two sound-waves might be in the best position to mutually reinforce or cancel. Sure enough, in-phase sounds solid and in-front of the speakers, whereas out-of phase sounds a little hollow and BEHIND the speakers. Good luck, M.
This was handy for setting up after takin the stereo to bits, nice one.
I’ve been working on a movie and have been using panning a lot, then I thought, ‘oh shoot, what if my speakers have been on the wrong sides the whole time?’ Luckily they were fine, but this article saved me! Now I won’t be afraid it’ll sound weird on the big screen!
Thanks, I’m glad you found it useful.
hi, i’ve recently hooked up a pair in car. im using the stock wires from the car but unfortunately there are no markings on the stock wires that indicate which is the positive or negative wire. the bass doesent sound all that great from the speakers which made me think they may be out of phase. i do have a dvm. i was just wondering if it could be used to locate the negative and postive wires. if so, how would i do it?
If you have a DVM, try tooky‘s instructions above. I haven’t tried it myself with a DVM, but give it ago and let me know how you get on.
Hi Richard,
A few days ago I purchased some Logitech Z4 computer speakers. Because it is a discontinued model (I think replaced by Z523) I was able to haggle and buy the display unit they had at the store for $70. When I got home and connected them up and played a song off youtube – I was extremely happy with my purchase and had a smile from ear to ear. But after about 10 seconds the right speaker stopped working. I thought I must have blown the speaker as I did crank it quite a bit. I checked the speaker connection at the back of the sub-woofer which was fine. I then swapped the left speaker connection with the right which then caused the right speaker to work but then the left didn’t work. This test obviously told me that there is nothing wrong with the speakers but the problem is with the female right speaker port at the back of the sub-woofer. If I fiddle, bend and twist the connection at the back of the woofer – I can sometimes get a hint of it working for a second or so. but cannot get a stable connection. I thought about buying another Logitech sub-woofer but I have found out that they do not sell spare parts – only the whole package.
Any hints on fixing this loose dodgy connection?
When I was a kid 30 years ago, I recall a similar problem with our stereo and my Dad wrapped some aluminium foil around male connection before plugging it back in which fixed the problem. I am loathe to try such an old fashioned thing on the sensitive modern equipment of today (unless you think is worth a try?).
Any help appreciated.
cheers
Rod Dufficy
Sydney, Australia
Hi Rod,
A difficult one. Have you tried some WD40 on the jack socket and then pushing it in and out quickly 4 or 5 times? If there’s any dirt or grunge on the connection, this may help to dislodge it and make a better electrical connection.
Great article, I have another scenario I’d like help with. In a car audio system with four speakers can there be phasing problems if the front speakers are phased together the same but opposite of the rear speaker phasing? I’m thinking yes, I recently upgraded the front speakers of my truck with much higher quality than the stock units but the sound is muddy and distant now across the truck. I live in New England and the speakers were installed on a rare 55° day last week. Now we’re back in the 20°-30° range so I don’t want to experiment with this theory unless it may yeild results. Thanks Mark.
Absolutely, if your rear speakers are out of phase they will definitely adversely affect the sound quality and your listening pleasure, particularly in such an enclosed space.
OK, thanks for the reply, so as I understand this, the back speakers being out of phase with the front speakers is most likely my problem. I’ll brave the cold and make the change…..Thanks.
That’s not to say that there aren’t any other issues, but it’s a good starting point and a likely candidate. Wrap up warm and let me know how you get on.
Success! I switched the phase of the new speakers and the results were amazing. Thanks for the insight. Take care.
Brilliant. So pleased it was successful for you, and such a simple thing really, which can have such a massive effect on the sound.
Richard, I had to shift my office furniture around to fix an ADSL connection problem. That worked but when I hooked the kit back up my sound system was all messed up. Fortunately I remembered your article and the built in sound tests and Bob’s Your Uncle. Fixed!!! It was a very handy reference article and worth bookmarking for the nex time! You know me, I will be doing it again!
Glad to hear it solved your problem so quickly.
Hey my music system(Inspire M2600) is not working. i don,t know where is the wrong.When i play a video or music no sound is heard.I have teaated wiring.Plz. help… thanks in advance.
Hi, don’t really know what to suggest without seeing the system. Have you got any friends that could take a look at it for you? It has got power to it I assume?
Hi Richard,
Many thanks for your cool explanation, now i have a better understanding on phasing.
My system has got a phasing like problem, where my after listening to 15 minutes of music in my car, it feels like there is a finger poking on the back of left neck, its really disturbing.
Now, i just purchased some polarity check instrument, and have tested it against all speaker, and they are all set properly, which means no polarity problem.
However my system sounds exactly like phasing problem. I switched my left speaker to the right and right to the left, the problem moved to the right. So i brought it back to the sound installer and they change the new amp for me.. The bad news is, the problem remains. The guy said its the HU, so i purchased another brand new Alpine head unit, still it did not go away. I hv spent too much money on this system, and too much days with this. Its been a stressful 23 days since i change my car sound system. Please let me know what the problem is.
Thanks in advance sir
Hi Jimmy, How many speakers do you have in your car, 2, 4? If I put up the phase test as a downloadable MP3 on my website, would that help you to try in your car? If it is truly out of phase then the out of phase MP3 would actually sound in phase!
I have 2 way focal speakers from focal just for the front speakers, for the rear speaker i used the default speaker. I thought something cancels out between front and back speaker. So i turn the fader all the way to the front. Out of phase and in phase mp3 will actually help out a lot. However i went to the installer and he confirms it is not problem with phasing.
Hi Jimmy, I’ve amended the post and added a link to the speaker phase test mp3 so that you can try it in your car. Good luck.
Nice. I just bought a new hp laptop and hate the speakers….. with your test I think the left speaker is out of phase…. the right sounds deeper and fuller, the left hollow and thin.
on right speaker she sounds full, on left speaker she sounds tinny.
when I play your “phase test” the right is louder “in phase” the left tinny and louder “out of phase” did I come to the right conclusion?
how will they fix it ??
Hi, If your system is out of phase, both speakers should sound different, not just one, although if when the phase test swaps, so does the loudest speaker, it could potentially be a phasing problem. To fix it, a repair shop would need to swap the speaker wires over on just one speaker (assuming it is just a phase issue). However, if it’s brand new and the speakers aren’t working satisfactorily, then the manufacturer should fix it for you under warranty.
Thank you for your very clear explanation ! I successfully solved my “phasing sound” issue !
Pleased to be of assistance.
Hi Richard
could you advise me please – have just bought a music centre at a car boot. Its speakers were not attached. How do I tell which is right and which is left? I do not want to try attaching them to my computer, only to their own music centre.
Also, if I attach them wrong, does this harm the speaker?
Many thanks.
Hi, Attaching them “the wrong way around” should do no harm at all. Once you have them attached, try burning my little speaker test audio files to a CD, or plug in an MP3 player with them on to see if you have the left and right the correct way around and if they are in phase or not. Good luck.
Thank you very much!. Have connected them up. A friend says speakers (if not labelled L and R) are identical, not like shoes – is he right?
If they are however Left or Right, would playing a CD that has a section of music that I know goes from left to right speaker also test them?
Your friend is indeed correct about speakers, they should be identical. You are also correct about your music test, if you have a CD where you know a certain instrument is on one side and pans to the other side, this will help you identify the L and R speakers.
Thanks heaps for the in phase / out of phase sample… for weeks i’ve been trying to sort out why a pair of speakers sounds ‘weird’. Turns out that the internal wiring of at least the bass/mid driver was incorrect from the factory. Having sorted that out i’m not sure how to determine if the whole crossover is wired backwards or just the mid / bass driver – it’s not so obvious if the treble is out of phase. any tips?
Hi, Glad to hear that the little phase test has helped you. The only thing that I can think of to test just the tweetters is to download a WAV file of a pure sine wave ABOVE the cutoff frequency of your crossover (somewhere between 3kHz and 6kHz ish) and see if you could audibly detect any phasing discrepancies on the tweeters.
I don’t know if this article is still around but I just got a stereo, nothing too fancy quite powerful…now its brand new I have everything hooked up when I first turn it on it makes a loud almost crackle and bass pop then plays weird : S now the speaker wire is not color coded if I look closely inside one side is copper one is silver I’m assuming copper is red/ silver is black I know I’m new at this, but it set me back a lot and it sounds like crap.
If it’s brand new and sounds that bad, I’d recommend taking it back to where you bought it from. Swapping a few wires to sort out phasing problems would have no effect on the sort of problems you’re describing.
Thanks for the website.
The audio files were very useful for me when I was trying to position my bookshelf speakers.
And calibrate the balance on my preamp.
Simple, easy to use but works so well.
You’re welcome and I’m the little audio files were of assistance.
Hi Richard,
Is this test applicable for a home theater setup with 5 speakers? How do I check the surround speaker wirings and what effect mode should I put on my AVR? Setting it to output stereo sound can only test my 2 front speakers.
Thanks for your help
Hi, This test is only really applicable for a stereo set-up and not a full surround sound system. You are correct that setting your system to stereo will enable you to test your two front stereo speakers, but to do a similar test on your rear surround speakers would require a more sophisticated test unfortunately. Whatever test you do perform however, I would turn off ALL effects on your AVR so that you are just testing the pure source file without any contamination from additional effects that could cause odd phasing problems. I hope this goes some way to answering your question.
Hi Richard,
I think I have a phasing issue since I have connected four new speakers in my car.I have a 4 channels amp connected to my OEM radio. I have two issues:
First, my two rear speakers sounds like crap (they are of lesser quality than the front components but ….), but I put the fader in the rear, the left & right sound identical (both crap…). Is it likely a phasing issue ?
Second issue: I “think” that my left front speaker produce more bass than the right. So I’ll try to switch polarity. Question: to check the phasing, is it OK to switch polarity directly on the amp ? It would be easier than opening the doors to access the wiring on the speakers…
Thanks !
Yes, switching polarity on one channel of the amp output to your speakers should have the desired effect if it is a phasing issue.
Just tested the mp3, and phasing seems ok… So I’ll test other rear speakers…
But I CAN hear a difference between left and right channels in the front. As my front speakers are components, is it possible that the tweeters and/or the woofers aren’t in phase with each others ? How could I test it ?
Hi Christian, It is certainly possible for the tweeters and bass units to be out of phase with each other. To test tweeters in isolation you could try downloading a WAV file of a sine wave ABOVE the cutoff frequency of your crossover (around 3kHz and 6kHz) and see if you can audibly detect any phasing discrepancies on the tweeters.
Hi Richard. So much bass now in my system !!! I’m not sure I understand what to check for if I play a sine wave… Do I have to check if both tweeters are in phase with each other, doing a right/left comparison ??? Please tell me more
Nice to hear that you’ve got lots of bass
If you play a 6kHz sine wave with the tweeters in phase, it should sound like it’s coming from the dead centre of the 2 speakers. If the tweeters are out of phase with each other the sound should sound disjointed like it’s coming from both speakers separately instead of coherently from the centre. Hope this makes sense.
OR, would it be possible that my issue is caused by some inversion of polarity BEFORE the signal reach the amp? I had to put two Hi-Lo converters between the radio and the amp, so I had some occasions to inverse polarity before reaching the amp…
Even if the signal feeding the amp is “inversed”, is inversing the speakers wires on the output stage of the amp would correct it ?
Inverting a signal before the amp would indeed have the same effect as inverting the speaker wires on one channel, so inverting the speaker wires on one channel could also rectify your problem as you guessed.
Done ! One of my front speaker were out of phase.
Those mp3 were very good: http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_polaritycheck.php
But I found that the real best way is by looking at the woofer cone when doing the 1.5v battery test (did it right to the amp), because I was kinda confused by the different audio pics.
Thanks !
Hi Christian, I’m pleased to hear that you’re making some progress at last and thanks for the link to the alternative tests. The low frequency rumble test is particularly good for testing the bass drive unit alone without too much interference from the tweeter. Your battery test is a good way also, but I wouldn’t do it too often as you could risk damaging your drive units with excessive travel.
[...] source="amazon" results="10"]Speaker Cable Precision[/affmage] crossover slope question? I am on the market for a new cd player (for my truck).I am in a toss up be…es, but does have a usb on the front(which I like very much-very convenient). In my 1994 toyota [...]
Thanks, now I know it is wired up correctly. Great that I could download the file, as my system is not where my computer is. Now I just connected my Ipod and heard that it is allright. Turned out that a couple of albums in VBR sounded really strange on my Ipod…with constant bitrate it is ok.
Glad to be of some small assistance.
Richard,
I am completely bamboozled. When I play your phase test the “out of phase” always sounds louder and more centered, even after I change polarity on one of the speakers. Even if I turn the balance control to just one speaker, the second voice sounds louder and fuller. I’m also hearing a lot of left ch. in the right ch. and vice versa.
I have my iMac running through my home amplifier/speaker system. This happens whether I am running a wired output or via Wi-Fi using Airport Express.
Hi Cary, Thanks for your comment. If you’re getting bleed through between the channels it sounds like more of a software problem with the computer. Do you get the same bleed across the channels if you listen with headphones directly on your computer?
Looks like you’re right. For some reason the app “Hear” from Prosoft Engineering was causing the problem, particularly the crosstalk between the left and right channels. Can’t figure why that should happen — can’t find any other complaints about it — but I’m glad to get my sound right.
Thanks.
Glad to hear that you’ve managed to fix your problem.
Great article. I love the out-of-phase.mp3. Super useful!
This article and most articles like this focus on whether the right and left channel are in or out of phase. If they are out of phase, the advice is always to switch the + and – wires to one of the speakers. No one ever seems to worry about which speaker should have its wires switched to correct the phasing problem. However, if you switch the wrong one, your speakers could be in phase, but have reversed polarity.
So, my question: Assuming you do have your left and right speakers in phase, does it matter if you have polarity reversed (i.e., reversed + and – on both speakers)? In other words, besides phasing issues, does reversed polarity affect sound quality at all?
Thanks!
Hi Chris, Thanks for your comments, glad you found the article informative. In answer to your question reversed polarity as you put it will have absolutely NO effect on the sound quality at all.
Hi Richard,
I’m not overly audio savvy, so I may use odd terminology if I’m unsure of the correct word to use. My problem is with a headset using 3.5mm audio jacks.
I’m nearly certain my headset is out of phase, it had the symptoms of being out of phase, but unfortunately the only cure on this site was for large speaker set ups. I don’t have a problem with speakers, it’s my Turtle Beach headset that is out of phase.
There are only two (three counting the mic jack) connectors/jacks in the headset, the two 3.5mm jacks in the back of the PC for speakers and mic, then a plug just after the audio control. Image here: http://www.gamelikeapro.com/images/products/secondary/turtle%20beach%20ear%20force%20z2-2.jpg . What I want to know is how to fix the out of phase issue with my headset. It may be a bit difficult but I’m sure someone as audio savvy as yourself will be able to fix it.
Thanks in advance,
James.
Forgot to add:
It’s only been out of phase for about a week or so, I don’t believe I’ve treated it any differently to how I’ve treated them for the last 8-9 weeks (yeah, the Z2 isn’t very durable, this is the second headset I’ve been through). The only thing I can think of is that I listened to some songs with heavy bass fairly loud through them.
I haven’t had any troubles with this specific headset before. In my pair before this one, the left speaker shut off completely and the only temporary remedy was to hold the wire to the volume control in a specific way then tape it like that, obviously this didn’t fix it so I went and picked up another headset. Now that headsets gone out of phase, which is a fairly large piss-off.
I’ve tried removing and putting the jacks back in to the back of the pc, I’ve disconnected the “in-line quick jacks” blasted them with air then re-connected and the headset is still out of phase.
Failing to find a cure: Can someone suggest a decent gaming headset that’s fairly cheap (AUD$80-$180) but still high quality and durable? It doesn’t need to be a gaming headset, it could be a decent headset with a table mic, as long as it sticks within that price range and has good quality.
Hi James, An out of phase sound is usually as a result of incorrect wiring. If your headphones were OK and are now not, the problem may point more to a software irregularity. Could you try another pair of headphones from say an MP3 player with your PC to see if the problem persists. If it does (and it was OK before) then it definitely points to a software problem.
Thanks Richard,
After a bit of wire jiggling (very techincal, I know) I worked out my headset seems to be out of phase when the wires are placed in a certain way. I believe they’ve been wired incorrectly. Thanks for your help.
James.
To reset Default Volume (Sound) in Windows Xp Go to your Start Menu,then select Run and then type mmsys.cpl and/or control mmsys.cpl and/or control mmsys.cpl,,1 (to open Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, like from the Control Panel does.) After that click on Speaker settings and select Speaker Volume. Ther you can change however you want them and the click on Restore Defaults.
Tooky’s DVM method cannot prove in case the wiring inside the speaker is swapped. Am I wrong?
Great article! My experiences with speaker phasing has been exactly as you stated. Most people haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, and then when you show them, they can’t hear the difference.
Interestingly, Mazda Miata OEM Headrest Speakers were factory wired out-of-phase! Additionally, Honda Element OEM front left/right and rear left/right speakers left the factory, you guessed it, wired out-of-phase!
I’m guessing Japanese don’t understand phasing either.
It’s appalling that manufacturers can actually ship product from a factory that is wired out of phase! What is the world coming to?
I’m wiring some speakers into my car, I’m starting completly fresh, 3 speakers, one left, one right and one center speaker. I know how to wire the two sides but can I wire both left and right speaker outputs into the one center speaker to get both left and right sound through it?
Cheers
Hi Charlie, The simple answer to your question is NO, absolutely not, you can’t wire a central speaker like that, you run a serious risk of permanently damaging your amplifier.
If you don’t have an amplifier to support a central speaker (which is unlikely) then you would need to buy a new amplifier system to cater for the central channel.
Ok, great advice, i dont have an amp at the moment because im not going to run subwoofers, but i’ll look into one with a center speaker facility. Thanks for the help, much appreciated.
You’re most welcome.
Brilliant. Simple. I am an idiot so need help like this. Well done and thank you.
Thanks Kate, pleased to be of assistance.