Wiring A Speaker Backwards
Polarity is the right word.
Wiring a speaker backwards. One way would be to disconnect the wires at the amp and speaker ends and just test the conductivity of one of the conductors. Also the bass will be really thin. This action is known as making the speaker out of phase and results in audio oddities. What happens when you plug them in reversed is that the electrical signal that feeds the transducer that physically moves the speaker forward and backward agitating the air and creating sound waves is moving out of sync with the other speakers potentially in the system which will make it out of phase.
You could use a test recording instead but conductivity will be more. Simple way is to nip into maplins and get a 10 analogue multimeter and a length of wire long enough to run from end to end on your speaker cables. If you have it backwards the cone will move inward toward the magnet which is reverse polarity. When in phase a bass note you play will push the speaker cone out as you noted it isnt easy to tell by ear which way it is but if two speakers are involved and one is out of phase the bass is severely reduced since the inout motions effectively cancel each other out and.
Both speakers and amp outputs have and terminals so that the phase is maintained. When the cone moves outward then the terminal touching the battery is the positive terminal. Accidental reversal of speaker wires can happen when the wires are not properly labeled for polarity. Sound will kind of come from everywhere and youll have no centerpoint.
To be certain take a 9 volt battery and touch the speaker terminals taking notice of which terminal the battery is touching.