# Does anyone know Focal tweeter polarity?



## Krimsonviper (Apr 25, 2020)

About to finish my install and I noticed the tweeters and manual make no mention of polarity on the provided leads. I figured out the woofer ones by looking at the board in the crossover, but the tweeters don’t have that. Anyone know?
Focal Flax PS165F


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## sd86 (Apr 25, 2020)

Red stripe is positive


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## koren (Nov 30, 2009)

If I don't have a red stripe? Mine are red and green, no stripes. 
Of you look at the tweeter from the back, which side are positive?


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## koren (Nov 30, 2009)




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## Ge0 (Jul 23, 2007)

99.9% of the time a lead with RED in it is positive. If for some reason this is not true try swapping leads.

FYI. You may need to do this anyway to get the best results depending on mounting position. Electrical polarity does not necessarily equal acoustic polarity.

Ge0


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## koren (Nov 30, 2009)

Urgent help needed!!! Focal Tweeter Wiring. - Gearspace.com


Hi all, Replacing a Focal Twin6 Tweeter. Two wires - one green and one brown. Which in is + on the tweeter? Got an hour to get this sorted. Thanks in a



www.gearslutz.com





Here they say that green is positive)))

Damn, focal. Why can't you just mark it like it's on crossover... 
$800 speakers and no idea how to wire them correctly....


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## seafish (Aug 1, 2012)

You can simply use some speaker wire and a single AA battery to test the speaker terminals...whichever terminal causes the cone to move forward when connected to the positive tit on the battery is the positive terminal. If you have leads with alligator clips it is extremely easy to do all by yourself but if you dont have alligator clips just grab a second set of hands to help. 
FYI --There is NO way to hurt the speaker while doing htis with an AA battery...the cone will either move in or out.


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## koren (Nov 30, 2009)

Yes, but you don't see that on the tweeter... cone is too small to figure out.


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## miniSQ (Aug 4, 2009)

koren said:


> Yes, but you don't see that on the tweeter... cone is too small to figure out.


Try placing a piece of tissue paper over it, and one of the connections should move the tissue paper up a little.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

and test with 1,5V battery


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

You're over-thinking this... Focal is fairly consistent with their wiring schemes, and doesn't typically do things to confuse 'the norm'.
In your picture below: The red wire is the positive. The clear wire (copper color) is negative.

The guy on the other forum, that is stating he has a green lead for positive, likely bought a fake set of Focals.


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## dobslob (Sep 19, 2011)

jimmydee said:


> The guy on the other forum, that is stating he has a green lead for positive, likely bought a fake set of Focals.


Maybe he got the limited Christmas Edition?


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## seafish (Aug 1, 2012)

jimmydee said:


> The guy on the other forum, that is stating he has a green lead for positive, likely bought a fake set of Focals.


The ONLY problem with that statement is that the member name of "the guy" on the other forum is
"FocalPro" and is subtitled as "Company Rep" and with their logo below that...MAYBE he is a counterfeit Focal Rep, but IMO thats ALOT of potential legal exposure and trouble to go through to help a guy out with a pair of speakers!! JK/LOL


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

I'm a bit confused on where this green wire is...?
When i look at the picture; I see a red wire, and a clear (copper) color wire.


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## Destarah (Feb 24, 2019)

@jimmydee note the date on the quoted post from the other site, not referencing the same conversation methinks lol.

For the record, I would like to state that it is fairly stupid of Focal to not just stamp a freaking + and - on the tweeter basket. Granted you won't blow it up wiring it reverse phase, but what's wrong with giving customers a chance at wiring things in electrical phase to start with? If they really think it doesn't need to be marked then they shouldn't bother marking any of their speakers ... just sayin


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

does it matter? seriously? wire them the same and you are golden. as others have mentioned, you may have to switch polarity to make them sound best anyway. just wire them the same (flip a coin) and call it a day.


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## koren (Nov 30, 2009)

I wired them as red being positive for now. There is a YouTube video where they checking the polarity with apple app. I have android phone a didn't get a chance to get ahold of the iPhone yet but will definitely test it later.


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## Bartman28 (Jan 14, 2021)

I have the same speakers and wired the red as positive for the tweeters. The phase tool told me that was wrong! Woofer was correct, tweeter was wrong. Using Focal crossover, not active. 



koren said:


> I wired them as red being positive for now. There is a YouTube video where they checking the polarity with apple app. I have android phone a didn't get a chance to get ahold of the iPhone yet but will definitely test it later.


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## sd86 (Apr 25, 2020)

Bartman28 said:


> I have the same speakers and wired the red as positive for the tweeters. The phase tool told me that was wrong! Woofer was correct, tweeter was wrong. Using Focal crossover, not active.


Did you check both tweeters? Could be a quality control issue


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## Bartman28 (Jan 14, 2021)

Yes, both tweeters were giving a reverse polarity on the tester. Both wired the same. 



sd86 said:


> Did you check both tweeters? Could be a quality control issue


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## Bartman28 (Jan 14, 2021)

This is the response from Focal:

"If you have polarity as red stripe as positive on both speakers then your system is wired correctly. Since the passive network is involved, the crossover slopes should be the same between drivers and hence that is why the tweeter is playing inverted phase. So, if it sounds correct, it probably is. 
One way to be certain is to invert phase on the tweeter leads and see if it sounds better. I am willing to bet it won't."


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## Kostas-a (Jan 18, 2021)

koren said:


> I wired them as red being positive for now. There is a YouTube video where they checking the polarity with apple app. I have android phone a didn't get a chance to get ahold of the iPhone yet but will definitely test it later.


Hi. Don't know if you have found an app. Currently installing focal in my car and had the same issue.
Finally found a reliable android app for polarity check.
KRK Audio Tools.


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## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Kostas-a said:


> Hi. Don't know if you have found an app. Currently installing focal in my car and had the same issue.
> Finally found a reliable android app for polarity check.
> KRK Audio Tools.


Polarity of drivers in the nearfield is not really important... more so that they are all connected the same way which is easy as the wiring for both tweeters is identical... this is because reflections add delay to sound so sometimes you need reversed polarity to get good summation


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## haakono (Apr 5, 2009)

It is not unlikely that the polarity of the tweeters is reversed from the factory, and this is the reason why. 



> *Second-order Linkwitz–Riley crossover (LR2, LR-2)[edit]*
> Second-order Linkwitz–Riley crossovers (LR2) have a 12 dB/octave (40 dB/decade) slope. They can be realized by cascading two one-pole filters, or using a Sallen Key filter topology with a Q0 value of 0.5. There is a 180° phase difference between the low-pass and high-pass output of the filter, which can be corrected by inverting one signal. *In loudspeakers this is usually done by reversing the polarity of one driver if the crossover is passive.*


If the passive crossover that came with the set is of this kind (which it likely is), the tweeter is most likely wired inverted, so that if you connect it to the OEM crossover it will play as intended, but if you use a polarity checker it will show up as reversed.


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## Bartman28 (Jan 14, 2021)

I am getting an out of phase reading with the tweeters connected to the crossovers. My thinking was from the factory they have them wired for a dash installation instead of a door mount where the tweeter is pointed right at you. The reading says in-phase if you read it from the side but out of phase if you read it from in front.



haakono said:


> It is not unlikely that the polarity of the tweeters is reversed from the factory, and this is the reason why.
> 
> 
> 
> If the passive crossover that came with the set is of this kind (which it likely is), the tweeter is most likely wired inverted, so that if you connect it to the OEM crossover it will play as intended, but if you use a polarity checker it will show up as reversed.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

I’m a dealer 

red wire is positive!

focal 3 way crossovers usually invert the polarization on the midrange....

The red is positive... end of story


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## JimmyDee (Mar 8, 2014)

Yep... end of story.
Especially since this is a 9 month old thread.


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