280z Speaker Wiring Polarity

[NC280z]

Good afternoon everyone,

 

I'm restoring my '75 280z to the original radio system and need some help figuring out the polarity for the single (mono) speaker that these cars came with. The original speaker is missing, but the stock white and white/black wires are still there. The FSM and factory diagram available from XenonS30 and other sites do not show which color wire is which polarity, and the replacement Hitachi speakers I've acquired from a Datsun 1200 have the striped wire going to the negative side of the speaker. 

 

Does anyone here still have their original speaker setup, and if so, which wire goes to which terminal? Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide, I've searched just about every forum and have come up empty-handed. The majority of the posts  on other forums only show how to determine a speaker's polarity, not the polarity of the wiring from the head unit. 

[datzenmike]

If you have two wires and two terminals it really doesn't matter which goes to which.

[MikeRL411]

The only time connection polarity matters is when you have a stereo output.  Incorrect phasing of the dual channels will produce areas of mutual cancellation giving a "WTF" sound result.

[datzenmike]

You know Mike I doubt many people even realize this or could tell the difference.

[Ken Layton]

I would think that the white with a black stripe is the negative side. Polarity does matter even in mono situations. The wrong polarity would have the speaker cone pulling in instead of pushing out. This would affect the bass response.

 

In the correct polarity, the cone pushes outward and gives the best sounding bass tones. In the wrong polarity, the cone sucks inward and sounds "tinny" (weak bass response).

[datzenmike]

I can reverse the subs in my car and there is no difference. 

 

The speaker follows a sine wave so it's not ONLY moving outward. It might start out moving into the box, but half way along it's being powered outward with the same power. Two speakers out of phase would tend to cancel each other and stereo might but for a single sub or dual subs (as long as matched wiring) can be 'wired backwards'.

[thisismatt]

12 hours ago, Ken Layton said:

I would think that the white with a black stripe is the negative side. Polarity does matter even in mono situations. The wrong polarity would have the speaker cone pulling in instead of pushing out. This would affect the bass response.

 

In the correct polarity, the cone pushes outward and gives the best sounding bass tones. In the wrong polarity, the cone sucks inward and sounds "tinny" (weak bass response).

 

Sorry, but polarity does not matter in this case. Tone, you said it yourself. No tone is half of a sinusoidal wave pushing a driver one way & stopping. Would you argue that inverse mounted subwoofer drivers sound worse?