Help with loudspeakers/PA Systems.

Allright, I'll admit, I know next to nothing about speakers and electronic reproduction of sound, apart from what sounds good and what doesn't.

So here's the dilemma; I have a 150W PA system that had its speaker knocked out a few days back. I brought it to a local repair shop, they told me it was unsalvagable, and persuaded me to buy a new one (apparently it could withstand up to 350 watts of power).

As luck would have it, the other one burst within a day of use. Called the shop up, and the guy mentioned a phrase going along the lines of "the positive and negative polarities may have been reversed and caused the speaker to burst - did you reverse them?"

Well, I can't remember what polarity went where - and I really didn't learn anything regarding polarities in a speaker system in my Electronics Engineering diploma (as far as I know where speakers are concerned, there really should be no difference in polarity, at least for the small ones I used in some projects way back). Does this apply to all speakers or only the small ones?

Any help from audiophile gurus around here?

How ya doing, buddy?

Do the polarities really matter that much? I mean, the speaker itself contains no silicon parts or transistors, so why does it burst even if I do switch polarities?

Let's start Physics 101 again!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

By "switching wall polarities", do you mean reversing the live/neutral ends of the main power outlet?

Also, if did do that, shouldn't the whole system, speakers and mixer be unable to start in the first place?

Intriguing.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.