markrichardson:

Speaker cables have two strands, and speaker connections have two connections, labeled red (positive) and black (negative). An important thing to keep in mind when attaching speaker wire is that the polarity of the connections should line up properly. What this means is that all positive/red connections are connected to other positive/red connections and all negative/black connections are connected to negative/black connections (speaker wire with a small “+” on one of the strands makes this easy; on each end, just make sure the + strand is connected to the red terminal).

Correct polarity ensures that the two speakers are working together. If the left speaker is red-to-red while the right is red-to-black, then one speaker will be sucking in air while the other is pushing it out. They will be moving air in opposite directions and all information that they share will be muddled as a result, because they are working against each other. 

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Crucial! Lots of great tips from Mark here.

Also and this is obvious enough for Mark to skip it, but don’t buy your record players at Urban Outfitters. Because those Crosley joints are just sad. If you’re “trying to get into vinyl” and don’t want to eat the shit out of your $30 Of Montreal record (and want to hear what vinyl’s all about), save up for a couple months! You can buy a new turntable, used receiver, and a decent set of speakers for around $300 by looking used.

Here’s another thing, especially if you’re buying used: CLEAN YR RECORDS. You can get a brush really cheap (ask your local record nerd or buy a cheap on online—they look like the red thing here). You can buy a little bottle of the cleaning solution, but it’s become really weirdly expensive since no one buys records anymore, so make your own. You can make a gallon for the same price you buy like a mini-contact-solution bottle size one at the store for. It’s only distilled water, some sort of household “cleaning” agent (like Lysol, no shit) and isopropyl alcohol. Here’s a recipe.