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"All you high end buffoons" -- Well how about you pro audio buffoons?

208.58.2.83

Posted by PolesApart on December 17, 2008 at 11:59:40

In Reply to: RE: More about Absolute Polarity posted by harecording on December 16, 2008 at 19:48:50:

"99.9 percent of the speakers made today move out first, using negative polarity." Huh? HUH???

The writer means "drivers", not "speakers", but let it pass. Or, not -- the huge majority of designs today incorporate crossovers that require the polarity of the bass driver, say, to be opposite that of the mid. So which one may be discovered to "move out first"?

Besides which, the writer displays a manifest confusion here between electrical polarity and acoustic polarity. Most designers will tell you they have wired their drivers so that when the + on a battery is connected to the red terminal, the driver will move forwards. This is an unwritten convention of the trade, but one that JBL alone (I believe)ignored, originally, springing as they did for the opposite. But that's electrical polarity.

Acoustic polarity, the subject of both Dan Shanefield's letter and HiOnFi's post, is altogether different and separate. Acoustic polarity recognizes the undisputable fact that most acoustic instruments have a polarity signature. They produce, most commonly, compression transients -- although a few do produce rarefaction. When these signatures are reversed by an audio system, the instruments sound wrong. Specifically, the compression transients sound muffled. That is why acoustic polarity really matters and electrical polarity remains tertiary at best.

Throughout recorded history, owing to a lack of specific directions or standards, our delivery media have incorporated a mixture of the two polarities. Sides can be different from each other, cuts can even sometimes alternate, and worst of all, a track mix can involve both recorded polarities, making a mish-mash of the music. This is just another reason why simply-miked and unprocessed (un-toyed-up) recordings can sound so great, so natural.

But, a further caveat: Whatever the polarity aspect of the recording or the reproducing system may be, the requirement is for a compression-type instrument to produce a compression transient from the loudspeaker. And compression transients are produced only by out-going driver motions. There can be no compromise.

When the poster says, "By flipping all channels to acheive 'absolute polarity', you are getting closer to positive polarity, which would make for absolute polarity IMO" one can only be perplexed by the sloppy thinking and/or writing.

The man does however get a couple of things right:

There is also a misconception that phase and polarity are the same. They are not.

Indeed not. Although, polarity is one specific and singular condition of phase. Also it is binary, either 0 or 180.

The fact that a Behringer or any other processor allows for polarity flipping does not mean that it facilitates or allows for absolute phase.

One notes some additional confusion there (besides that poignant substitution of "phase" for "polarity"). Nothing, but nothing "facilitates or allows" for correct polarity (i.e. absolute polarity) except for the human ear. The ear here is the ultimate, and just about the only arbiter.

We remain...

Poles Apart

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