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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
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.
fatparrot
1,314 posts
 
There has been a entire book published about phase inversion called "The Wood Effect" by Clark Johnsen [who, I believe, is a long term member of Audio Asylum]. This book has many documented studies concerning listeners' abilities to hear a difference when phase is inverted [both speakers polarity reversed]. Some pretty heady reading, buy people do seem to hear a difference in almost all of studies.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Here's an idea. Why not write to Dave Grusin and ask him?
jea48
2,944 posts
 
Tvad, did you wink?
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