# Speaker Polarity



## jmuir (Jan 9, 2009)

New to the forum so I'll start off with a big Hello. 

I am running the yamaha rx-v661 with the paradigm monitor series speakers (fronts monitors 9, rears mini monitors, center cc-390). After hooking everything up and running the "auto setup" feature on the receiver, I am getting a error that indicates that the center channel is connected with reverse polarity. I double checked the connections and everything was correct, red to red and black to black. Re-ran auto setup and got the same error. So I changed the connections to red to black and black to red, re-ran auto setup and no error. Is there an easy way to see if the problem is with the receiver or speakers or if its just a bad error message? Should I just keep it connected red to black and black to red. I have no knowledge of speaker wiring so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
John


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Welcome to the Forum, John! Is the center channel a different make and model from your other speakers?

Regards,
Wayne


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## jmuir (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanks Wayne!

All speakers are part of the Paradigm Monitor Series. Center channel is model CC-390. Here is a link to the speaker on Paradigm's site: http://www.paradigm.com/en/paradigm/centers-monitor-cc390-model-3-4-1-54.paradigm

Thinking about, this weekend I'm going to try switching the connections with the right front speaker (monitor 9) and the center channel (cc-390) then re-running the setup again. It will be a monitor 9 connected to the center channel terminals on the receiver and the cc-390 connected to the right front terminals. I figure if the error still occurs where the cc-390 is connected then it probably is a problem with the wiring in the that speaker. If the error continues to occur with the connection on the monitor 9 then it probably is an issue with the receiver. Either incorrect wiring or a erant error message. Sounds like it may isolate the problem.

John


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## jmuir (Jan 9, 2009)

To clarify, what happens if a speaker is wired with reverse polarity? Will it just be out of phase or is there a risk in damaging the speaker/receiver?

Thanks
John


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

No risk of damage to the speakers. When stereo pairs are the wrong polarity, there is a noticeable loss in bass response. 

It could be something internally with the center speaker's design. One way you could check would be to connect the center speaker to say, the left channel and play it with the right speaker, and see if flopping the speaker wires affects bass response.

Regards,
Wayne


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## jmuir (Jan 9, 2009)

Sounds good. I'll give it a try this weekend.

Thanks
John


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## jmuir (Jan 9, 2009)

After testing, it definitely seems like the speaker is wired incorrectly. I contacted the dealer which they were purchased and will be dropping it off to be fixed. No a huge deal but I will be without the center channel for a few days.

Thanks for your help Wayne!

John

Thanks for your help Wayne!

John


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