Of late I have played around with the absolute polarity of my set up and also did some reading on the topic and this has stimulated my interest.
Absolute polarity should not be confused with a system in which the positive and negative leads of one speaker are wired in an inverse manner. That is a no-brainer, bass goes out of the window, everything is phasey and drift around the room if you move an inch.
The topic seems to be controversial and to make things worse, recordings are also all over the show. It seems even when multi-layered tracks are laid down on a recording, recording engineers might decide to inverse the polarity or phase of a voice or instrument for effect. To make things more interesting the debate also involves whether the crossover typology of speakers, ie when some of the drivers are wired with inverted polarity to ensure a flat on-axis summation, ie with 2nd order LWR crossovers.
Have a look at the following diagram:
So my question is can you hear the difference between the 2nd and 3rd situation, or is this just an audiophile myth?
Lastly, if you can hear such a difference, please list a recording that you consider produced with absolute phase and one which is not(try not to google before you do such a test
)
Absolute polarity should not be confused with a system in which the positive and negative leads of one speaker are wired in an inverse manner. That is a no-brainer, bass goes out of the window, everything is phasey and drift around the room if you move an inch.
The topic seems to be controversial and to make things worse, recordings are also all over the show. It seems even when multi-layered tracks are laid down on a recording, recording engineers might decide to inverse the polarity or phase of a voice or instrument for effect. To make things more interesting the debate also involves whether the crossover typology of speakers, ie when some of the drivers are wired with inverted polarity to ensure a flat on-axis summation, ie with 2nd order LWR crossovers.
Have a look at the following diagram:
So my question is can you hear the difference between the 2nd and 3rd situation, or is this just an audiophile myth?
Lastly, if you can hear such a difference, please list a recording that you consider produced with absolute phase and one which is not(try not to google before you do such a test
)
