Reversing absolute phase

Reverse the speaker cable leads at either the amp, or at the speakers, but not both. This reverses absolute phase (as opposed to having only one speaker wired backwards, which results in the speakers being out of polarity...something which is sometimes mistakenly referred to as being out of phase).

Some tube preamps invert phase, which requires the leads to be swapped at the amp or speakers, unless the preamp has a phase switch.

Here's a more complete explanation from Galen Carol Audio.

The nice thing about this tweek is that it costs nothing, and will keep you occupied for several hours!

Thanks Tvad!!

You're welcome.

This comes up about once a month. Since there is not and never was an industry "standard" for absolute phase, LPs and even CDs are not consistently created equal with respect to phase. In fact, on an LP, one track can be out of phase (or phase inverted) with respect to the next track. Therefore, if you want phase to be "right" for each and every piece of software, you are going to be jumping up and down a lot swapping the hot and ground connections of your speaker wires, even assuming you can hear the difference. IOW, if your preamp is inverting, it will still be correct about 50% of the time. And if you are obsessed with "proper" phasing, you had best acquire a preamp with a built-in phase switch. Just be sure your L channel is never 180 degrees out of phase (not "polarity") with your R channel. That DOES sound bad.