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Reversing Polarity -- Voodoo or Easy Tweak?

In a recent thread I noticed a comment about reversing polarity of speaker wires on both speakers which sparked one of my earliest audiophile memories.

On the liner or cover notes of Dave Grusin: Discovered Again on direct to disc vinyl, circa 1977, it too recommended reversing the polarity on BOTH speakers, for best sound.

Although my first system was a 25 WPC Technics receiver with Infinity Qa's and lousy speaker wire, I still remember getting very enthusiastic about reversing the polarity and wondering if it did anything.

Can anyone explain this and/or recommend if this is even worth the experiment?
cwlondon
tbg
5,263 posts
 
So what do you conclude?
jea48
2,944 posts
 
Herman posted,
"Phase has to do with time, polarity has to do with whether a signal is going positive or negative. If a speaker is wired with the wrong polarity it will be going out when it should be going in, and vice versa. I have friend who claims he can tell when it is reversed because a vocalist will sound like they are gulping air instead of exhaling."

Herman puts it into words better than I can. I also agree with every thing he has said in this thread.

Recorded music is converted to electrical signal and that signal has polarity. With no signal being a base line with positive signal above the base line and negative signal below the base line. Positive signal will cause the coil of the speaker to move foward from a no signal state and negative signal will cause the speaker coil to pull back from a no signal state. So imo if the source signal for a given time is positive then the speaker, if the polarity is the same as the signal for the same given time, should move forward. Sorry if I do not say it as eloquent as Herman.

I was talking with my son the other day and I mentioned this thread. My son was the one that reminded me I had the Grusin LP. He told me that Frank Zappa recorded his music with reverse signal polarity.

Question why would any one record music reversing the signal polarity deliberately?
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Question why would any one record music reversing the signal polarity deliberately?

Perhaps to give their music a distinctive and uniquely different sound.
jea48
2,944 posts
 
"Perhaps to give their music a distinctive and uniquely different sound."

I thought of that but in the case Of Grusin LP there is this statement;

Audiophile Note: "For optimum transient response and spartial clarity, we recommend that the polarity of BOTH channels be reversed at the speaker terminals(+ output terminal on power amplifier to - terminal on speaker and vice versa), however this procedure is not necessary for for perfectly satisfactory playback."
cwlondon OP
1,198 posts
 
Jea48

That's it!

....the exact text which inspired this post. I was just working from memory as my LPs have been in storage for 12 years.
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