16 gauge speaker wire

[sallyc062]

When I sripped the "coating" off the 16 gauge speaker wire, one side has silver wire in it and the other side has gold wire. Which is positive, the silver or the gold?

 

[kanewolf]

It doesn't really matter. By convention the light colored wire is usually black. BUT as long as you are consistent in your usage, it doesn't matter if you ALWAYS use silver for black terminals or for red terminals. It just matters that you are consistent.

 

[sallyc062]

It doesn't really matter. By convention the light colored wire is usually black. BUT as long as you are consistent in your usage, it doesn't matter if you ALWAYS use silver for black terminals or for red terminals. It just matters that you are consistent.

 

[sallyc062]

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm not very knowledgable about anything a/v, so, one more question: Is the black terminal positive or negative.

 

[InvalidError]

If your terminals are black and red, red is usually positive and black is ground/neutral.

 

[sallyc062]

Thanks again. You helped me out a lot.

 

[USAFRet]

Consistency.
On all of my audio systems, since the mid 70's, I've followed this simple setup:

The White or Black terminal gets the silver wire, or the insulation with the white stripe
The Red terminal gets the copper/gold colored wire, or 'the other one'.

There is no pos/neg in the actual wire...just as long as you are consistent.

(and interestingly, a couple of the actual wires I have hooked up to my current 5.1 system are the same actual speaker wires from the 70's... )

 

[dudio]

It's funny.. I've always used the silver or striped jacket as the positive (red) terminal, and the regular copper as the negative (black) connection. You guys had me thinking I was weird, until I thought of home electrical where the white jacket/silver wire goes to the light connection and the black/brass goes to the black...