Speaker wiring polarity backwards on bridge

[ZZ13]

I recently replaced all five of my outdoor speakers. The two in the cockpit were wired with correct polarity. All three on the bridge were wired with the polarity reversed (the two speakers and the subwoofer). The + from the amp went to the - on the speaker. Could this have been done on purpose for some sort of overall sound effect?

I connected all five with normal polarity when I put in the new speakers.

 

[JimG]

I have always been a proponent of wiring the polarity correct. When I installed a subwoofer in my 310 last summer, I did as always... + to + and - to -. When I first tried it out, it just didn't give me the wow factor that I was expecting. I had a friend (big audiophile) come and listen and as soon as he heard it, he said that I need to reverse the polarity on the subwoofer. :huh: When we did, it made all the difference in the world! I was amazed.

That said, it may have been something like that or someone just forgot what the markings were on the wire.

 

[ZZ13]

That's interesting because I first wired up the new subwoofer with the backwards polarity and it definitely boomed more than it does now with correct polarity. Hope someone can explain that.

 

[2000SEARAY280SS]

The head unit may have the wires reversed and the installer decided to fix it at the speaker end.

 

[Wylie_Tunes]

Obviously, the sub is driven by an amp, what about the full range, speakers in questions, amp or head-unit? Is the wire at the speaker making a home run to the amp? Are you 100% sure the polarity is reveres? Reversing the polarity, or phase, on a sub is not uncommon, but reversing the polarity on full range would be odd, especially when they are in the same area as a reversed sub. It would be a zero net gain.

 

[ZZ13]

I checked the connections at the amp and at the speakers and compared the markings on the wires. All three speakers were definitely reversed. The subwoofer was the original factory install. So that one was either done when the boat was built, or a previous owner swapped them because of post #2 above. The two full range speakers were replacements put in a couple of years ago by the previous owner. The speakers had no markings on them for + -, so maybe they just got confused when connecting them. I checked the documentation for the speaker to determine they were backwards.

Oh well, no big deal. Thanks all for responding