This is an area of real complexity, and unless you're really obsessive (like me, on occasion), I wouldn't recommend going there. It can drive you nuts. First of all you need really polarity-coherent speakers to hear consistent effects. My Gallo Reference 3s, unfortunately, fit that bill. Before I got them, I listened to the switched-polarity tracks on test CDs and couldn't hear a bit of difference. Now I can. Swell.
Roughly half the records and CDs out there were recorded in "normal" polarity and the other half in "inverted" polarity. Some labels are consistent -- DG, Mercury Living Presence, Riverside, and RCA tend to be inverted, while Philips, Columbia, Atlantic, and ECM tend to be normal. These are just examples.
Some discs have individual tracks in different polarity. One Richard Thompson LP has him "normal" and the back-up instruments "inverted," so I can pop him out or recede him into the mix depending on how I have things switched. I switch at the speaker inputs, using banana plugs, and yes it's a cumbersome pain in the butt.
Unlike you, I hear differences in the analog domain just as clearly as in the digital.
Roughly half the records and CDs out there were recorded in "normal" polarity and the other half in "inverted" polarity. Some labels are consistent -- DG, Mercury Living Presence, Riverside, and RCA tend to be inverted, while Philips, Columbia, Atlantic, and ECM tend to be normal. These are just examples.
Some discs have individual tracks in different polarity. One Richard Thompson LP has him "normal" and the back-up instruments "inverted," so I can pop him out or recede him into the mix depending on how I have things switched. I switch at the speaker inputs, using banana plugs, and yes it's a cumbersome pain in the butt.
Unlike you, I hear differences in the analog domain just as clearly as in the digital.