How to Quickly Test Speaker Wires and Speaker Connections

This article covers how to quickly and efficiently test your speaker wires and connections with a common household battery.

How to Test Speaker Wires and Connections

All you need is a common household battery (a fresh one, preferably) such as an AA, AAA, or a 9-volt battery. Don't use anything bigger than these. While you're at it, grab some masking tape and a pen so you can label the wires as you go along.

If you have speakers located in other rooms (particularly with a whole house or multiroom audio systems), you might want an assistant to help you watch or listen. Turn off all equipment before you begin.

1. With your battery in hand, and access to an end of a speaker wire, lightly hold up the end of the wire against either side of the battery (labeled as either positive or negative with a + or - sign).

   If you have the right wire and everything works, you'll hear your speaker make some noise.

2. Once you've identified which wire connects to which speaker and can confirm there aren't any major issues with the wire or speaker, you'll need to make sure your positive and negative speaker wires are connected to the positive and negative ports on your speaker itself as well as your receiver for the best connection possible.

   Speakers, receivers, and speaker wires are not built the same. The overwhelming majority of speaker wires will come with a way to identify which connection is positive and which is negative, but oftentimes it isn't as clear as a label that says "positive" or "negative." Usually, consulting your specific product's manual or a Google search is the easiest way to clear up confusion.

3. Once everything is connected, play some audio through your speakers to confirm everything actually works as intended.

   While you will get the best performance out of your speakers by matching the polarity of the speaker wire to the port on a speaker or receiver, this usually won't cause serious audible issues, so don't expect to hear if each speaker is connected correctly polarity-wise.

Troubleshooting Tips

If you don't hear anything from a speaker, check the wire connections on the back of the speaker to make sure they're firmly set. Use a fresh battery and only briefly touch the wires to the battery while testing, otherwise, the battery can quickly drain. If you still don't hear anything, the problem may be a defective speaker or defective wire between the amplifier and the speaker.

Connect working speaker wires to the unresponsive speaker. If the speaker still doesn't produce any sound, the speaker may be defective. You'll need to investigate further as if you're troubleshooting when one speaker channel isn't working. 

If the battery test does work, this likely means that the original wire is the problem. Carefully check the entire length of the wire in question since even a small break can lead to problems.

If you're dealing with a subwoofer, you'll have to address a few additional steps to troubleshoot when your subwoofer isn't working. Subwoofers don't always connect in the same way that typical stereo speakers connect.