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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
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?
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Jea48, no, I didn't wink. Why? I was serious. Write him and ask him...unless he's dead, and I didn't know it?

Perhaps one issue with this recording is that it was cut direct-to-disc. Maybe doing so eliminated one link in the signal chain that would have otherwise corrected the polarity? Just guessing here...
jea48
2,944 posts
 
Tvad, I thought maybe you were pulling my chain...LOL...
I did do a quick look for a possible email address for Grusin on Google. No luck yet.

I did Run across a thread where Clark Johnsen gave this link;
http://www.stanrickermastering.com/polarity.htm
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