I'm almost too embarrassed to ask, but.....


I would have never given this a thought but, I was recently watching the DVD concert, "Sting: Live from the Universal Amphitheater" and noticed that the trumpet was coming through the speaker on my left but, the trumpet player was standing to my right of the TV screen. Note that this is strictly two channel. I thought that perhaps my speaker wires needed to be switched on my amp. What I found was the right output on my amp corresponds to the speaker that sits to my right as I face the speakers. So my dumb question is, should the right channel speaker sit to the right as you face it, or to the right as you look from the speakers' perspective??? Call me crazy!
Hopefully, I'm not dense and the recording was not mixed properly.

Thanks again.

2chnlben
2chnlben
I must be missing something here. My current preamp is phase inverting which require me to swap the connections at the speakers so the drivers move out when they are supposed to rather than be sucked in. (How's that for technical lingo?) That doesn't have anything to do with left and right being correct. Of course, your situation may be different with HT being a part of the package where I'm simply two channel. I've owned a preamp that had a reverse switch which changed channels left and right but I don't recall this being called phase inverting. Could somebody explain a little further? Or, do I already understand this correctly? Thanks.
Lugnut, you are right. Thanks for jogging my brain. The reverse switch on my preamp has nothing to do with the phase. It only reverses the right and left channels. Now, my DAC does have an switch that will invert the phase. So, if it is as simple as I think it is, I should be able to invert the signal at the DAC, wich will inturn get inverted at the preamp, therefore making the signal normal. Thus, I don't have to change the wires at the speakers. I think!!!!!!
Watchout though Kinsekd and others who use orchestras to orientate! Some conductors like to have violins divided to extreme L and R, firsts to the left. In this arrangement the lower strings are centrally placed, often with doublebasses at centre left. Klemperer's recordings frequently show this set-up, and many "authentic" instrument recordings by Norrington etc. But trumpets and trombones are nearly always hard left.
Whoa! It's my turn to watch out. I should have said "trumpets and trombones are nearly always hard RIGHT". Sorry about that. Guess we all have trouble telling left from right sometimes! Isn't stereo a wonderful invention.