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RE: More about Absolute Polarity

The only time 'polarity' comes into it during recording is when more then one mic is used to capture an instrument. Thats usually the drum kit where each drum is close mic'ed and an overhead pair is used to capture the whole kit, the cymbals and some of the room sound.
In this case one or more mics need to be inverted to avoid large cancellations.
Often the snare drum is mic'ed top and bottom in which case one mic has got to be inverted.

It has nothing to do with overall 'acoustic polarity' which once something has been recorded is impossible to reconstitute. Whos to say if a drum was mic'ed from above, in which case the soundwave starts with a rarefaction, or below in which case the wave begins with a compaction? If you stand a few yards away from a drum kit there is equally no way of telling if you hear the compaction or rarefaction first.
The engineer knows in the case of close mic'ing a drum kit but if you mic a clarinet nobody knows and nobody cares, the mic just goes where it sounds best.

The reason xovers have polarity switches is because pa speakers are hardly ever time aligned and the switch is again used to avoid the worst cancellations.
Some xovers feature 360deg adjustement of phase for the same reason, mine do anyway.

Drivers should be run the way they were designed. In case of my Tannoys they were designed to move backwards when faced with a positive going waveform, just like JBLpros. They sound better that way. The Volt drivers in my woofers were designed for either and do not sound in any way different if I flip the polarity.

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  Kimber Kable  

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