Newbie Alert

On a bulletin board there was a query concerning fitting different plugs
to get speakers with +ve & -ve wires from an old sound system connected
to a new amplifier with phono connections. I wrote this:

[
"Fit the two wires to a plug, repeat for the other speaker.
Play something, then move the speakers face to face.

"If, when the speakers are face to face the sound goes much quieter, you
have the speakers "out of phase" so swap the connection on ONE of the
speakers - it doesn't matter which one.
]

and one reply was:

[
"uhh man... thats bad... it does matter whith one!
your way you could get speakers in phase but running other way around
(plus to minus) so instead speaker blowing out like this: - D it would
go like this: - D.
you probably would notice it as it would produce distortion on high volume.

"Most of concentic connections are hot(+) inside cold (-) outside
however make sure you not using concentric cable to match your plug,
this kind of connection will introduce loss of high tones (only if you
use concentric cable) due to internal capacity of (concentric) cable...

"You could always check polarity by quickly connecting 9v battery, if
speaker goes up than your + is +, if not then other way around.
]

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
that are sensitive to polarity?

Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan

Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan

Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan

"Paul Harris" wrote in message
...
: Newbie Alert
:
: On a bulletin board there was a query concerning fitting different plugs
: to get speakers with +ve & -ve wires from an old sound system connected
: to a new amplifier with phono connections. I wrote this:
:
: [
: "Fit the two wires to a plug, repeat for the other speaker.
: Play something, then move the speakers face to face.
:
: "If, when the speakers are face to face the sound goes much quieter, you
: have the speakers "out of phase" so swap the connection on ONE of the
: speakers - it doesn't matter which one.
: ]
:
: and one reply was:
:
: [
: "uhh man... thats bad... it does matter whith one!
: your way you could get speakers in phase but running other way around
: (plus to minus) so instead speaker blowing out like this: - D it would
: go like this: - D.
: you probably would notice it as it would produce distortion on high volume.
:
: "Most of concentic connections are hot(+) inside cold (-) outside
: however make sure you not using concentric cable to match your plug,
: this kind of connection will introduce loss of high tones (only if you
: use concentric cable) due to internal capacity of (concentric) cable...
:
: "You could always check polarity by quickly connecting 9v battery, if
: speaker goes up than your + is +, if not then other way around.
: ]
:
: So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
: that are sensitive to polarity?

An age old fuel source for flame wars.
1) the recorded signals of musical instruments,etc are not symmetrical.(fact)
2) some people claim to be able to tell which is true to the source and vice verse.
3) some people claim not to be able to tell is was is true to the source and vice verse.
4) multitracked recordings where a source sound is picked up by more than one mic obscure this
phenomenon .

Good test for Arny's ABX program to see if you are 2 or 3

"Paul Harris" wrote in message
...
: Newbie Alert
:
: On a bulletin board there was a query concerning fitting different plugs
: to get speakers with +ve & -ve wires from an old sound system connected
: to a new amplifier with phono connections. I wrote this:
:
: [
: "Fit the two wires to a plug, repeat for the other speaker.
: Play something, then move the speakers face to face.
:
: "If, when the speakers are face to face the sound goes much quieter, you
: have the speakers "out of phase" so swap the connection on ONE of the
: speakers - it doesn't matter which one.
: ]
:
: and one reply was:
:
: [
: "uhh man... thats bad... it does matter whith one!
: your way you could get speakers in phase but running other way around
: (plus to minus) so instead speaker blowing out like this: - D it would
: go like this: - D.
: you probably would notice it as it would produce distortion on high volume.
:
: "Most of concentic connections are hot(+) inside cold (-) outside
: however make sure you not using concentric cable to match your plug,
: this kind of connection will introduce loss of high tones (only if you
: use concentric cable) due to internal capacity of (concentric) cable...
:
: "You could always check polarity by quickly connecting 9v battery, if
: speaker goes up than your + is +, if not then other way around.
: ]
:
: So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
: that are sensitive to polarity?

An age old fuel source for flame wars.
1) the recorded signals of musical instruments,etc are not symmetrical.(fact)
2) some people claim to be able to tell which is true to the source and vice verse.
3) some people claim not to be able to tell is was is true to the source and vice verse.
4) multitracked recordings where a source sound is picked up by more than one mic obscure this
phenomenon .

Good test for Arny's ABX program to see if you are 2 or 3

"Paul Harris" wrote in message
...
: Newbie Alert
:
: On a bulletin board there was a query concerning fitting different plugs
: to get speakers with +ve & -ve wires from an old sound system connected
: to a new amplifier with phono connections. I wrote this:
:
: [
: "Fit the two wires to a plug, repeat for the other speaker.
: Play something, then move the speakers face to face.
:
: "If, when the speakers are face to face the sound goes much quieter, you
: have the speakers "out of phase" so swap the connection on ONE of the
: speakers - it doesn't matter which one.
: ]
:
: and one reply was:
:
: [
: "uhh man... thats bad... it does matter whith one!
: your way you could get speakers in phase but running other way around
: (plus to minus) so instead speaker blowing out like this: - D it would
: go like this: - D.
: you probably would notice it as it would produce distortion on high volume.
:
: "Most of concentic connections are hot(+) inside cold (-) outside
: however make sure you not using concentric cable to match your plug,
: this kind of connection will introduce loss of high tones (only if you
: use concentric cable) due to internal capacity of (concentric) cable...
:
: "You could always check polarity by quickly connecting 9v battery, if
: speaker goes up than your + is +, if not then other way around.
: ]
:
: So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
: that are sensitive to polarity?

An age old fuel source for flame wars.
1) the recorded signals of musical instruments,etc are not symmetrical.(fact)
2) some people claim to be able to tell which is true to the source and vice verse.
3) some people claim not to be able to tell is was is true to the source and vice verse.
4) multitracked recordings where a source sound is picked up by more than one mic obscure this
phenomenon .

Good test for Arny's ABX program to see if you are 2 or 3

Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same
as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan




However, a Sheffield Lab recording of a piano (Lincoln Mayorga) instructed the
user to reverse the polarity on the playback speakers. It made a difference,
but it's been so long ago thqat i can't remember the results.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same
as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan




However, a Sheffield Lab recording of a piano (Lincoln Mayorga) instructed the
user to reverse the polarity on the playback speakers. It made a difference,
but it's been so long ago thqat i can't remember the results.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same
as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan




However, a Sheffield Lab recording of a piano (Lincoln Mayorga) instructed the
user to reverse the polarity on the playback speakers. It made a difference,
but it's been so long ago thqat i can't remember the results.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 10:25:51 +0100, Paul Harris
wrote:

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
that are sensitive to polarity?

Yup. All of them. The question is more whether your ears are
sensitive to polarity.

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 10:25:51 +0100, Paul Harris
wrote:

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
that are sensitive to polarity?

Yup. All of them. The question is more whether your ears are
sensitive to polarity.

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 10:25:51 +0100, Paul Harris
wrote:

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
that are sensitive to polarity?

Yup. All of them. The question is more whether your ears are
sensitive to polarity.

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 10:25:51 +0100, Paul Harris
wrote:

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker
that are sensitive to polarity?

Yup. All of them. The question is more whether your ears are
sensitive to polarity.

On 07 Jul 2004 19:07:05 GMT, (Richard Kuschel)
wrote:

However, a Sheffield Lab recording of a piano (Lincoln Mayorga) instructed the
user to reverse the polarity on the playback speakers. It made a difference,
but it's been so long ago thqat i can't remember the results.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

Why? Did they record it out-of-phase by mistake?

"Laurence Payne" wrote in
message
On 07 Jul 2004 19:07:05 GMT, (Richard Kuschel)
wrote:

However, a Sheffield Lab recording of a piano (Lincoln Mayorga)
instructed the user to reverse the polarity on the playback
speakers. It made a difference, but it's been so long ago thqat i
can't remember the results. Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

Why? Did they record it out-of-phase by mistake?

The dynamic range of LPs is asymmetrical. You can only go up to surface
level in the vertical direction, but you can dig a deeper hole. AM radio is
the other way around.

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:34:56 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

The dynamic range of LPs is asymmetrical. You can only go up to surface
level in the vertical direction, but you can dig a deeper hole. AM radio is
the other way around.


Explain, please?

My visualisation is that loud bass will make the stylus ride lower.
Why would absolute phase make a difference?

"Laurence Payne" wrote in
message
On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:34:56 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

The dynamic range of LPs is asymmetrical. You can only go up to
surface level in the vertical direction, but you can dig a deeper
hole. AM radio is the other way around.

Explain, please?

My visualisation is that loud bass will make the stylus ride lower.

If the music is a symmetrical wave, the average height of the stylus will be
unchanged.

Not surprisingly, positive Y on a LP is up. That means that a cartridge with
positive polarity will produce a positive signal when the stylus is moving
up.

Why would absolute phase make a difference?

Stylus movement in the up direction is limited by the zero signal depth of
the groove.

Natural music and voice is often asymmetrical. It often has the greatest
peak amplitude in the positive direction. However, the greatest peak
amplitude that can be recorded on a LP is less in the positive direction
than the negative direction.

If a record is cut with inverted polarity and played with reversed
connections on the cartridge, then the signal will have positive polarity,
but the largest peaks will be in the down direction.

This whole argument is based on a very simplistic or purist view of
allowable signal processing. But in the context, purist approaches would be
expected.

anybody-but-bush wrote:

"Paul Harris" wrote in message
:
: and one reply was:
:
: "uhh man... thats bad... it does matter whith one!
: your way you could get speakers in phase but running other way around
: (plus to minus) so instead speaker blowing out like this: - D it would
: go like this: - D.
: you probably would notice it as it would produce distortion on high volume.

An age old fuel source for flame wars.
1) the recorded signals of musical instruments,etc are not symmetrical.(fact)
2) some people claim to be able to tell which is true to the source and vice verse.
3) some people claim not to be able to tell is was is true to the source and vice verse.
4) multitracked recordings where a source sound is picked up by more than one mic obscure this
phenomenon .

Thanks to everyone who has shed light on this and apologies for fanning
old flames.

I had not considered symmetry. The "distortion on high volume" got me
wondering if there are speakers that oscillate around a voltage other
than zero i.e. the natural rest position on the cone is different from
the powered but silent position in which case when switched on, the cone
would be seen to jump forward (or back) and hold due to a non-zero
voltage being applied.

Since nobody has mentioned this, I guess there would be no advantage in
such a design - there is no need to "park" a speaker when powered off
like a hard disk drive head.

Paul Harris wrote:

On a bulletin board there was a query concerning fitting
different plugs to get speakers with +ve & -ve wires from
an old sound system connected to a new amplifier with phono
connections.

The standard connection is to wire it so that positive voltage on the
red terminal makes the bass unit move out of the voice coil gap, i.e.
produce a positive sound pressure. Absolute polarity is sometimes
audible, sometimes not, and sometimes properties (2. harmonic
distortion) of the loudspeaker (or microphone) makes it more audible
than it would otherwise be. Listen for what happens with spoken voice.


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

--
*******************************************
* My site is at: http://www.muyiovatki.dk *
*******************************************

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 21:05:46 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Laurence Payne" wrote in
message
On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:34:56 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

The dynamic range of LPs is asymmetrical. You can only go up to
surface level in the vertical direction, but you can dig a deeper
hole. AM radio is the other way around.

Explain, please?

My visualisation is that loud bass will make the stylus ride lower.

If the music is a symmetrical wave, the average height of the stylus will be
unchanged.

Not surprisingly, positive Y on a LP is up. That means that a cartridge with
positive polarity will produce a positive signal when the stylus is moving
up.

Why would absolute phase make a difference?

Stylus movement in the up direction is limited by the zero signal depth of
the groove.

Natural music and voice is often asymmetrical. It often has the greatest
peak amplitude in the positive direction. However, the greatest peak
amplitude that can be recorded on a LP is less in the positive direction
than the negative direction.

If a record is cut with inverted polarity and played with reversed
connections on the cartridge, then the signal will have positive polarity,
but the largest peaks will be in the down direction.

This whole argument is based on a very simplistic or purist view of
allowable signal processing. But in the context, purist approaches would be
expected.


Thank you

Arny,

AM radio is the other way around.

Right. As I recall the FCC even allows 110% modulation in the positive
direction, yes?

Also, I once read a white paper at Orban's web site that describes a phase
shift gadget that "rotates" the asymmetrical waveform typical of voices so
the peak level can be increased without needing compression.

--Ethan

Paul Harris wrote:

anybody-but-bush wrote:

An age old fuel source for flame wars.
1) the recorded signals of musical instruments,etc are not symmetrical.(fact)
2) some people claim to be able to tell which is true to the source and vice verse.
3) some people claim not to be able to tell is was is true to the source and vice verse.
4) multitracked recordings where a source sound is picked up by more than one mic obscure this
phenomenon .

Thanks to everyone who has shed light on this and apologies for fanning
old flames.


A legitimate question, none-the-less (although its flamed past
may have relegated it a spot in the FAQ :-)


I had not considered symmetry. The "distortion on high volume" got me
wondering if there are speakers that oscillate around a voltage other
than zero i.e. the natural rest position on the cone is different from
the powered but silent position in which case when switched on, the cone
would be seen to jump forward (or back) and hold due to a non-zero
voltage being applied.


The only place that I have seen this is when an amplifier has a
DC component on its output (not good). This not only has the
speaker dissipating power when there is no sound being produced
(hey! That would make it a "class A" speaker! :-), it now puts
the operating point on the speaker such that it can limit in one
direction befor it limits in the other.


Since nobody has mentioned this, I guess there would be no advantage in
such a design - there is no need to "park" a speaker when powered off
like a hard disk drive head.


There might be such an advantage on more exotic speaker designs
that are attempting to utilize some other principles in
operation, but the speaker would need its own (matched) power
circuitry to ensure that the zero point of the transducer element
was matched to the zero point of the driving electronics. It
would not be so much a need to "park" the transducer when off as
the need to optimize its zero point when in operation. I don't
know of any transducer types that do this but that doesn't mean
there aren't any.

On a normal speaker, the unpowered reference point naturally
falls in the middle of the speaker's normal travel range (like a
spring that has neither been compressed or stretched). No current
applied, speaker is at reference point. Positive current applied,
speaker moves out from reference. Negative current applied,
speaker moves in from reference (sorta like a "class B" operation :-)

Since the farther you move away from the reference point, the
closer you approach the speaker's physical limits and the greater
the possibility of operating in non-linear regions of the
speaker's travel. If the non-linear areas were not symmetrical
about the rest position, then conceptually applying a DC offset
to "center" the operation between the non-symmetric areas might
seem feasible. However, it would appear to me that the complexity
of doing this could be orders of magnitude above that of just
designing the transducer so that it is symmetric and linear in
both directions (i.e., the current phylosophy of most speaker
driver design)

- Jeff

"Paul Harris" wrote in message
news : anybody-but-bush wrote:
:
: "Paul Harris" wrote in message
: :
: : and one reply was:
: :
: : "uhh man... thats bad... it does matter whith one!
: : your way you could get speakers in phase but running other way around
: : (plus to minus) so instead speaker blowing out like this: - D it would
: : go like this: - D.
: : you probably would notice it as it would produce distortion on high volume.
:
: An age old fuel source for flame wars.
: 1) the recorded signals of musical instruments,etc are not symmetrical.(fact)
: 2) some people claim to be able to tell which is true to the source and vice verse.
: 3) some people claim not to be able to tell is was is true to the source and vice verse.
: 4) multitracked recordings where a source sound is picked up by more than one mic obscure
this
: phenomenon .
:
: Thanks to everyone who has shed light on this and apologies for fanning
: old flames.
:
: I had not considered symmetry. The "distortion on high volume" got me
: wondering if there are speakers that oscillate around a voltage other
: than zero i.e. the natural rest position on the cone is different from
: the powered but silent position in which case when switched on, the cone
: would be seen to jump forward (or back) and hold due to a non-zero
: voltage being applied.

This type problem coud be endemic of DC offset in the system.
Phil Abbate

On 07 Jul 2004 19:07:05 GMT, (Richard Kuschel)
wrote:

However, a Sheffield Lab recording of a piano (Lincoln Mayorga) instructed
the
user to reverse the polarity on the playback speakers. It made a difference,
but it's been so long ago thqat i can't remember the results.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

Why? Did they record it out-of-phase by mistake?





Nothing was out of phase.
They had recorded the piano with both channels in reversed polarity, which is
why they suggested reversing the leads on both speakers. Of course, this
assumes that the listener's playback system maintains absoulte polarity, which
may or may not be the case.

Since this was a direct to disc recording, the polarity error could not be
reversed before printing the final discs.
Richard H. Kuschel
"I canna change the law of physics."-----Scotty

"Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com wrote in message ...
Paul,

So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that
are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan
____________________________
I would think there would be an impact of absolute phase on
transients(drums, Tchaikovsky's cannon, cymbols, xylophones, etc.).
But not so much on constant waves(pianos, organs, sustained guitar
notes, vocals, etc.) So it is possible that the drums may lack some
clarity or snap, depending on how they were tracked in studio.

For me, I want my woofers and mids to push toward me when reproducing
transients, not away.

-CC

ChrisCoaster wrote:

"Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com wrote in message ...

Paul,


So, with speakers in phase, are there some types of two-wire speaker that

are sensitive to polarity?

It seems the question you're asking is if absolute polarity (not the same as
phase) is audible, yes?

There's a discussion about this going on right now in the rec.audio.pro
newsgroup. As far as I'm concerned it is *not* audible. It's possible to
contrive tests that show an audible difference, but those are irrelevant
because they rely on playing frequencies below the speaker's cutoff where
the speaker behaves non-linearly. So in that case it's the *speaker* that's
responding differently to each direction. This is not the same as your ears
being able to hear a difference with reversed polarity.

--Ethan

____________________________
I would think there would be an impact of absolute phase on
transients(drums, Tchaikovsky's cannon, cymbols, xylophones, etc.).
But not so much on constant waves(pianos, organs, sustained guitar
notes, vocals, etc.) So it is possible that the drums may lack some
clarity or snap, depending on how they were tracked in studio.

For me, I want my woofers and mids to push toward me when reproducing
transients, not away.

-CC

Then you need to control the microphones and the entire recording chain.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

CJT wrote in message ...
ChrisCoaster wrote:



____________________________
I would think there would be an impact of absolute phase on
transients(drums, Tchaikovsky's cannon, cymbols, xylophones, etc.).
But not so much on constant waves(pianos, organs, sustained guitar
notes, vocals, etc.) So it is possible that the drums may lack some
clarity or snap, depending on how they were tracked in studio.

For me, I want my woofers and mids to push toward me when reproducing
transients, not away.

-CC

Then you need to control the microphones and the entire recording chain.
________________
Yikes! Didn't thinka that one. Yeah, polarity's probably been
flipped more times from studio to mastering than pancakes in a Pancake
House. Familiar with the complications of miking an open-ended
snare drum?

Still, at least if my end is confirmed correct polarity - any *flaws*
intentional or incidental would shine through.

-CC

CJT wrote in message ...
ChrisCoaster wrote:



____________________________
I would think there would be an impact of absolute phase on
transients(drums, Tchaikovsky's cannon, cymbols, xylophones, etc.).
But not so much on constant waves(pianos, organs, sustained guitar
notes, vocals, etc.) So it is possible that the drums may lack some
clarity or snap, depending on how they were tracked in studio.

For me, I want my woofers and mids to push toward me when reproducing
transients, not away.

-CC

Then you need to control the microphones and the entire recording chain.
________________
Yikes! Didn't thinka that one. Yeah, polarity's probably been
flipped more times from studio to mastering than pancakes in a Pancake
House. Familiar with the complications of miking an open-ended
snare drum?

Still, at least if my end is confirmed correct polarity - any *flaws*
intentional or incidental would shine through.

-CC

Chris,

I would think there would be an impact of absolute phase on
transients(drums, Tchaikovsky's cannon, cymbols, xylophones, etc.).

Yeah, you might think that, but the only way to really know for sure is to
try it. I've never heard a difference, except with contrived tests that have
substantial content at frequencies below the loudspeaker's cutoff. That is,
only when you drive the speaker into non-linearity might you get an audible
difference.

I want my woofers and mids to push toward me when reproducing transients,
not away.

That seems pretty unrealistic to me. Suppose you're miking someone playing
claves and the mike is in front of them. They might hit one clave into the
other, or the second one into the first. They might strike toward themselves
or away. These combinations will send the initial transient either toward or
away from the mike or a listener in the room.

Or consider a snare drum all by itself separate from a drum kit. You put a
single mike a few feet above the drum pointing down. The initial stick
impact sends the drum head away from the mike, and away from a listener or
the player hovering over the drum.

As much as it may *seem* to make sense that you want initial transients to
move the speaker cone toward you, or that the original polarity must be
maintained, in my experience it really doesn't make any difference.

--Ethan