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In Reply to: RE: Quad Elite preamp polarity posted by mitcho on June 23, 2015 at 11:58:11
If you can hear if the polarity is normal or reversed then you can reverse cable connections simply by listening to give you your preference. Alternatively you may be able to reverse the source's absolute phase if it has the facility to do so (many CDPs and some phonostages do). In fact this is the only practical way of doing it if you are sensitive to this issue as correct or normal phase may be inconsistent from disc to disc or even from track to track.If you cannot hear it in order to make the necessary change by ear then you need not be concerned.
Edits: 06/24/15Follow Ups:
yes. I ended up changing it by ear.
thank you!
... you really need a preamp with a polarity switch on the remote. In addition to the performances recorded in normal and inverted polarity, many are in mixed polarity (sometimes intentionally, to bring a vocalist forward). And trust me, switching speaker cables gets old in a hurry.
Mixed is the key, many many more this way than all one way or the other.
E
T
Choose a polarity setup. Stick with it and accept the fact that recordings, CDs, streaming stations, ANYTHING you listen to is NOT going to be perfect - all the time.
Just be happy when you get a cracking good recording and move on with it. Enjoy the good ones. And chill out and sit back through the bad ones.
Then searchng for audio nirvane becomes senseless, desn't it?...
I mark my discs: simply stack a bunch in one polarity and listen to them, and then the bunch in the other polarity after one change in speakers.
I do have polarity switches in both my TT (4PDT switch in the junction box) and DAC now so that is not so important.
What is more infuriating for me is that fact that many speakers have designs which deliberately invert one driver. JM LAbs, Kefs. Wilsons....Once sensitive to polarity I can not live with a deliberate inversion.
Crossovers inevitably have some phase shift between the drivers.
In the analogue domain it is impossible to avoid this.
Speaker manufacturers invert one so the outputs of all drivers are in phase with each other.
Failing to do so will lead to a huge suck outs in the frequency response caused by the very twisted phase response.
A 2way with a 1st order xover will have a 90º shift between woofer and tweeter which can't be fixed, 2nd order 180º making inversion of one driver necessary, 3rd order 270º (see 1st order) and 4th order 360ºie in phase but delayed by one cycle.
It becomes more complex when low pass and high pass are not of the same order.
Furthermore not all drivers move forward with a positive voltage. Classic JBL and Tannoy move backwards, both manufacturers claimed that it is so to preserve absolute polarity from microphone to control room monitor in their literature.
Take a look at Stereophile's impulse test. 99% of the speaker out there have inverted drivers.
The far more insidious thing is that the majority of listeners can not hear it and accept BS for explanations
Seems to me if sonic accuracy was the goal with speakers designed with inverted drivers, then you need not spend more than a few hundred dollars per component
Spending dollars on components will not bend the laws of physics for you.The only way to avoid crossover-induced phase shifts is to go digital active when you can avoid it at the cost of pre-ringing.
You pick your poison...
Edits: 06/28/15
If all of this polarity nonsense is true and out of our control as consumers, I see no practical use for a polarity switch.
The novelty of a polarity switch is fun for a while but it wears off quickly. In my case, I can't imagine stressing over polarity with every new track with remote control in hand to switch back and forth.
With most speakers, you're absolutely right. But if your speakers are polarity-coherent AND have minimal or no crossovers, like my Gallos, polarity is hard to ignore. I didn't hear it for decades. If you can't hear it, count your blessings.
If you get into that all you are doing is making a rod for your own back.
During recording nobody cares about polarity unless you use two microphones on the same source.
Take drums: They could be mic'd from above (inverted impulse) or below or from a distance (your guess at polarity is as good as mine) or a mixture of close mic'd and one or more room mics.
Then there is equalization during mixing or recording which also produces phase shifts.
In the end nobody cares because it is impossible to have absolute polarity unless you use one mic for everybody. Which is what they did in the '50s before stereo and multitrack recording.
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