preamp inverts polarity

Three things i don’t believe were mentioned.

Some folks don’t hear phase reversals - even those with golden ears. You might be one of those lucky individuals.


Secondly, do we know that your amplifier doesn’t invert polarity? You might have two inverting components which net out to non-inverted.

Finally (and building on the second point), you need to take the entire signal chain into consideration - your digital front end as well as your phono section.
For each source selected, add up the total number of gain stages. An even number means non-inverting and an odd number means inverting.

It could end up (for example) that running through your digital front end, the signal is inverted and through your phono section, it’s non-inverted (or vice-versa).

BTW, I’m one of the lucky ones ;-)

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Look, first establish whether your system is in correct Polarity or reverse Polarity using a Test CD such as XLO Test CD. Then you have a baseline. Otherwise, you’re just shooting blanks in the dark. 

As I pointed out previously, it actually doesn’t matter whether your systemis in correct or reverse Polarity since at least half of CDs are in reverse Polarity anyway. If the percentage is much higher than 50% then wouldn’t it make more sense to place your system in reverse Polarity to begin with? Obviously, if you have a Polarity switch you can determine the best sounding position of the switch on the fly. But unless you have established whether your system is correct or reverse Polarity you won’t know whether the CD you’re playing is correct or reverse. Follow?

Oh, incidentally, the out of phase track on the XLO Test CD is the same track for determining the absolute best speaker locations in the room. The best stereo image is obtained when the sound is in correct Polarity after you have found the precise speaker locations that produce the most diffuse sound using the out of phase track on the XLO Test CD or any test CD that has a similar track.

@thom_mackris 
Atmasphere will probably take me to task on this, but I ended up debating the difference between phase and polarity with another fellow and was eventually convinced that there is a clear and technical difference. Polarity isn't time dependent whereas phase is described in degrees of angle from the polarity. A phase angle of 180 degrees isn't inverted polarity. It's a half wavelength delayed. 
My amplifier is a Pass F5. It inverts the polarity twice through two gain stages to preserve absolute polarity at it's outputs. What's more, its a myth gain stages always invert polarity. It completely depends on the mode the gain devices are operated in and it's entirely possible to get current and voltage gain from a single stage while preserving absolute polarity. 

@geoffkait 
Why do you keep babbling? I know what polarity I'm working with because I've put my fingers on every single transistor. Do you want me to show you schematics and explain to you what modes every transistor is working in so you can follow along? As I explained above, phase and polarity aren't interchangeable. I wish I could remember the guy who schooled me on that one when I argued they were, but he was right. 

geoffkait

Cleedsy, old bean, a vacuum is created by evacuating air from the system not by compressing it.

Quite so. That's what I wrote:

You can decompress air it until it's a vacuum ...