Hey guys, i helped my buddy put some subs in his civic today. He has an aftermarket pinoeer dvd player. However it doesn't have a sub out. It has an audio out spot, but when i plug in the RCA's I get no signal. So I had a RCA output adapter lying around. We hooked one end to his rear speaker and plugged the RCA's in. Success, sort of. It looks like one of the subs is hitting backwards, but I'm not 100% sure. It also sounds a little muddy, even at low volumes. Any ideas? should i just try to flip the wires on the back. they were his brother's subs and I do'nt know much about the history on them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Are you sure the connections are correct for the RCA plugs, solid power and ground wire, Remote turn on?

i'm sure that the power and ground are correct, i'm jsut worried about the speaker wire inside the sub box. if i just switch the wires will it kill the sub?

if one of the subs is hitting backwards (one moving in when the other moves out) then take them out of the box and check the wiring inside the box one of them is wired backwards when you fix the wiring then that will make the sound better too.

To check the speaker polarity without opening the box, you can disconnect the wires from the amp and touch a 1.5 volt battery such as a single AA or D cell to the speaker wires. DO NOT USE 12 VOLTS! Note which direction the cone moves. They should both do the same with the same polarity of the battery. I think the standard is the cone moves in when you do this, but not absoutely sure about that.

99% of speakers will move out when you put the + terminal of the battery to the + terminal of the speaker. The only notable exception is on older JBL cast basket speakers.

If the speakers are on the same side of the box they should be wired in phase, i.e. both speakers should move in and out in unison. If they are on opposite sides of the same box they often are wired in a push-pull arrangement with one moving in while the other moves out.