Wiring old speaker to RCA cable

[screenersam]

so I have some old speakers I'm connecting to a unit using RCA cables.

the tweeters are wired to the woofers. coming out are two wires, one black and one yellow.

the RCA cable has a central wire and an outer wire.

does it matter what connects to what?

 

[whoaru99]

Yup.

Mostly it matters that both speakers are connected the same. However, the center pin of the RCA plug is usually positive for speaker duty. So, use a small battery like a AA or C or D and momentarily connect the battery (+) to the center pin and battery (-) to the outer contact of the RCA. The woofer should push outward. If it moves inward instead then reverse the wires from the speaker to the RCA plug.

 

[Chip Chester]

To follow 'normal' wiring convention, I would say black to shell (or braided shield), and yellow to pin (center conductor of wlre shown.). It's much more important to be consistent between left speaker and right speaker than the specifics of wire color in your case.

The RCA cable you've shown is really for connecting signals between components at line level, rather than speaker level use. It will work, of course, and you may not notice much different from a RCA that is parallel wire construction instead of coaxial (which is what you have.) But a receiver/amp that uses RCA for speaker output is not going to ask too much of those cables in terms of power handling or other performance issues.

With 2K+ messages, I'm sure you've run across a thread or two discussing higher-end speaker cables, so you're aware there are many alternatives. But the wires you have may be good enough for the components you're connecting, and your intended use. Wire 'em up and listen to the tunes.

On edit: And yeah, do the battery test mentioned above, too.

 

[swechsler]

Looking at the construction of this speaker (I doubt the smaller driver is even a tweeter, it looks like a full range driver from a tape recorder or something similar), I don't think the cable used is going to make a difference.

 

[toxcrusadr]

I see a blue cap there that's probably the high pass filter for the tweeter.

 

[screenersam]

as suggested the black wire was the positive.
speakers wired. thanks for input.

thread to new receiver (a Yorx!)
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/yixe-a-yorx.812005/