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In Reply to: Re: More on the listening room as an evaluation tool posted by unclestu52 on January 21, 2007 at 20:44:20:
... is likely to improve only half the discs being played, this strikes me as a bit odd. Were all the test discs in the "wrong" polarity relative to the way the system was set up originally?Or are you talking about something other than ACOUSTIC polarity?
Follow Ups:
I take it you have not resorted to experimenting with the absolute polarity of your system. It seems, and admittedly I am assuming so I could be very wrong in this (if so, I do apologize), that you have simply accepted the 'facts' which CJ states. While I charitably attribute most issues to software, there are also many other aspects, including transducer time alignment which further cloud the issue and the perception.
... by "rearrange the polarity" and how such rearrangement impacts on the reality that there is simply no consisency in the polarity exhibited by different CDs, LPs and other media. For me, it's enough of a pain in the butt just to switch speaker cable when my polarity-coherent speakers tell me that it would be a good idea.
Polarity is difficult to demonstrate by writing, and needs to be experienced. That has been my experience, and in various conversations with designers and engineers, while most are very familiar with the technical ramifications of polarity, very, very few have actually auditioned systems in and out of polarity. For example, I spoke to the VP and president of California Audio Labs once and asked why they had a polarity switch on their automotive DACS, and none on their home units. Their reply was that no one used it or had asked for it, including all of the reveiwers. One user I met refused to use the polarity switch simply because the light came on and that additional light bothered him.
You are not alone in finding that swapping speaker wires seem to be far more troublesome than the gains in performance seem to be worth. I simply find it quixotic to find that listeners are willing to spend vast sums of money on audio gear which often have little semblance to reality (at least to acoustical instrumentation). Much dissatifaction with audio gear can be traced to this issue, which the ear can recognize as being 'wrong'.
... and I still don't see how it relates to "rearranging the polarity." Yes, polarity switching is easy to hear now that I have polarity-cohenrent speakers. And once you do, changing polarity at the speaker terminals upon hearing a disc that is clearly in the "wrong" polarity is not an option unless I'm feeling lazy. That said, it's really not a big deal -- not a deal at all -- if you can't hear the difference. And with many or most speakers, you can't. I can't, for instance, detect it on any speakers other than my own. And believe me, I've tried.
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