Cool - you got it for a fiver?! Can't go wrong...

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with it

So er, soeaker system is here, 16v!!

Now to establisg which is the pos and neg cable

wiich colors do the cables have?

Both black! Not with the normal whitw bo on one! Going to take a voltmeter to it tomorow to establish!

Strange... Good luck with the voltmeter!

Although one has whight writing, viltmeter will be more reliable!!

James, which cable are you referring to?

Does it have a mains transformer to power it?

Have a very close look at the DC input socket - there is almost always a symbol beside it showing the polarity of the plug. These DC plugs are concentric types - one pole inside t'other. The symbol will look like a dot inside a circle - the dot will have a line coming from it, usually horizontal, and the circle will also have one going t'other way. These lines will then have a +ve or -ve mark on them.

For pity's sakes don't reverse the supply polarity - I don't think I could stand it

right da, the wire is one strand, but two stuck together, y'know what i mean?

anyway theres no indication so taking a volt meter to it!!

mr D A, progress. i didnt mention, the tran is outside the subwoofer, makes life alot more simple and easy.
anyway so i set to work identifying the wires. i cut them different lengths so i could identify what was what, so i turned the tran on, hoping to get a positive or negative reading of 16v, nothing, tried everything, even checked the fuse, and fuse was fine, so gave up on the tran,
so what did i do next? i checked for polarity or whatever it is when you check a fuse, so i put one of the probes of my multimeter on the wire, and the other on the positive of the connection, (its one of those round connectors with a silver bit on the outside. now i know or a fact that the bit on the outside is the negative, so the only thing to do was to identify which wire it is. i did this succesfully, and now know which wire is what, so next? wire it into the car via fag lighter thing, and all will be well.
it is 16V, so im assuming this will be more suited to a 12v car battery

anyway here is the pic of what i had done on my lap with the multimeter

Hi James.

A bit confused by some of this. The cable you are referring to has a plug at one end (the one shown in the pic) and goes to the transformer at t'other end? You switched on the transformer, but nothing came out of it?

You have cut this cable off completely (hopefully near the transformer so's you've got a long length of cable for use in your car) and need to identify which wire goes to which part of the plug?

How do you 'know for a fact' that the 'outside' is the -ve?

Ok, if you look at this black twin-strand cable very carefully, there's a very good chance that you'll find there's a thin raised 'ridge' running all along the outside of ONE of them. Is there? If so, that's how you identify the wire, so you won't have to keep them different lengths. Usually - I think - the wire with the ridge will be the +ve, but I could very well be wrong with that - so don't act on it; please CHECK!

16V should be perfectly fine in the car - near enough to 12-13V for it to run at near max performance, but a nice bit of leeway should your regulator go a bit funny.

Looking forward to hearing what it sounds like!