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More about Absolute Polarity

Posted by HiOnFi (A) on December 16, 2008 at 15:25:38

In the current issue of enjoythemusic.com an article about polarity dating to 1989 is republished. I think you will all get something out of it.

More About Absolute Polarity
Article By Dan Shanefield
From BAS Volume 17 Number 3, November 1989

Below see my response.

Where to begin?

Scientists in every field often have contrary opinions, yet Dan Shanifield offers only one source, JAES! A shill perhaps?

I offer a more even-handed view. John Roberts in his 1983 article Exposing Audio Mythology says "Just because the effect of Absolute Polarity is not particularly audible today, doesn't mean that it won't be in ten to twenty years, as speakers and other equipment improve."

Results are all I care about, and I can tell you for a fact that polarity is not just audible, is it critical to hearing the recording properly, which leads to a greater ability to suspend dibelief.

Apparently, there are ways to employ a polarity circuit that validates my experience, and some that would not.

The reason why many people fail to hear polarity is the preponderance of phase incoherent loudspeakers, or what Dr Richard Greiner has called the crossover catastrophe.

FYI: Going back some 15 years, I have easily heard the effects of polarity on Accoustat 2+2s and custom made 4+4s. Genesis Vs, Reference 3A De Capos (one resistor between tweeter and woofer!), Nearfied Acoustics Pipedreams (point source, almost zero distortion), and on my current speakers- Magenpan 3.5Rs; of these all are phase coherent designs. I replaced the OEM passive XOs with a Behringer CX2310 active XO.

Not only does the Behringer (and I would venture any decent active XO)allow the speakers to breathe, it features independent polarity of the L and R inputs, AND individual polarity control for bass, and hi-frequencies, and don't forget the subwoofer, it has polarity control of it, too!

Point 1/3 in Dan Ss article "Not strongly audible to most people". And what planet did he pull that scientific data from- Uranus?

Hmmph! Clearly polarity is important to the Pro industry. Although, like the author, most of them can't hear it, and as a result polarity on recordings is all over the place, especially multimiked recordings, and recordings made from different studios, and times IE "Best of" compilations.

Just because polarity is not strongly audible to Dan S, the editor, or to "most people", doesn't mean it is not a critical component to hearing music in the proper polarity. I can readily hear it on TV broadcasts

I have had many audiophiles hear my systems over the years. They came in polarity virgins, however, it didn't take long to train their ears to appreciate the benefits of polarity, especially when the entire recording polarity is either 0 or 180.

• http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/bas/1208/   (Open in New Window)

Edits: 12/18/08

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