Speaker Polarity app for iPhone and iPad

4.8 ( 1088 ratings )

Utilities Music
Developer: Andrew Smith

4.99 USD

Current version: 4.5, last update: 3 months ago
First release : 14 Oct 2008
App size: 37.8 Mb

This app is a speaker polarity tester. Find out if your speakers are wired correctly (in phase or out of phase). Test your surround speakers, stereo speakers, PA speakers, in fact any speaker with wiring terminals on the back.

This speaker polarity tester was designed by the same people who built the Audio Toolbox, and the polarity tester in that unit was known as the most accurate and reliable polarity tester available. Now that technology is available in your iPhone.

Use this app to test your home speakers, recording studio monitors, or as part of your professional contractor work. Speakers wired backwards are the most common error in sound system setup, cause big problems, and are easily corrected. This app will give you the answers, no matter how difficult the wiring may be to trace.

Speaker Pop works by watching for a proprietary "pop" sound from the speaker, and doing DSP analysis of the sound to determine if the speaker cone is moving in the correct direction.

As long as you use a standard 1/8" stereo plug, you can use any normal 1/8" to RCA adapter to get the signal into your system. You can also to record the "pop" test signal to a CD, DVD, or another iPod, and play this signal through your speakers.

Works with iAudioInterface and iTestMic.

Select the speaker type filter, Woofer, Midrange, or Tweeter. This selects either a 125Hz, 500-2000Hz, or 8000Hz filter, to make the readings more reliable.

Once you have the test signal coming out of the speaker, position your phone near the speaker (we suggest you flip it over to point the internal mic directly at the speaker -- the display will flip). In a few seconds you will get the reading on the screen, either a Plus or a Minus. Plus indicates correct speaker polarity, Minus means you need to swap the wires coming into the speaker.

We also have stereo and surround test signals available for download from our web site which are ready for burning to CD or DVD. See our web site or for more information. Note that iDVD will not burn encoded surround files, a more advanced DVD burning authoring program is required. Some folks have had success with Toast. We also sell test DVDs on our web site.

See our other audio apps: AudioTools, our premier audio and acoustics test and analysis app, SPL, the professional grade sound level meter for the iPhone, SPL Graph, for recording SPL over time, RTA, a 1/3 octave real time analyzer, FFT, for detailed acoustic analysis, ETC, the Energy Time Curve app, RT60, for automated octave-band decay time analysis, and Generator, the iPhone signal generator. Watch for more coming soon.

Pros and cons of Speaker Polarity app for iPhone and iPad

Speaker Polarity app good for

I loaded the click aiff into iTunes, then put it on my iPod classic. Now its in my playlist. iPod classic is normally at foh and iPhone always in pocket. How conveniant to have that option without extra gear or fuss! Works as it should. Awesome.

I recently hooked up surround speakers in a house that was pre wired for them. Unfortunately whoever wired it chose to use plain wire without any indication of positive or negative. I was strongly suspicious that my speakers were wired backward, and I found this app. Sure enough one of the surrounds was out of phase, and after fixing it they sound dramatically better! This is one of those apps that is well worth the 5 bucks. Im very pleased. Thanks!

This is cool. I actually found a speaker wired backwards in my surround system. Awesome!

Works perfectly with my iPod Touch 3rd Gen and a headset mic. I played the test .wav through a ps3, set my receiver to output All Channel Stereo and placed the mic next to each speakers tweeter. It caught an incorrectly wired rear speaker which was connected to a wall-plate. Simple as that.

handy-dandy little app, if youre settin up a system this will help you make sure your speaker wiring is right. Google "Ferrari Safari" to see what I used it on!

I had to splice unlabeled wires together on my 7.1 surround setup and could get the phase right. I had a significant drop in bass response. I downloaded this app, hit their web site and played the calibration file while testing each speaker. 5 of them were out of phase! 5 minutes later I had everything in phase and rocking! This saved me hours of wiring work and 30 bucks in speaker wire. Excellent app!!!!

Some bad moments

When the screen inverts and you touch the "I" for info. Causes a permanent crash. Fix. Im sick of reinstalling this app.

Consistently wrong when tested against other phase checkers. And sometimes it just waffles back and forth. Waste of money.

This polarity tester does not work. Do not buy it. Hope somebody makes on that works.

I have it. Im trying to figure how to us it. Would it be so hard to write STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS telling how? like should i turn the signal output on or off? Like you say "select speaker type" Where would I do that?? How come you dont think about the user? It might be a good app, but you wont bother to explain usage. Is this digital, nonhuman, lack of understanding the other persons position ? Would it be so hard to present step by step instructions? Really! you put this up cause you enjoy this stuff but you also want to sell it, right??? So why be inconsiderate of the user? Yes, Im p.od. Im tired of gibberish.

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