preamp inverts polarity

Atmasphere, after listening to your explanation I’m even more inclined to believe G Louis. Two microphones or one, doesn’t matter, or three microphones. I also believe him when he states most audiophile recordings, even such famous ones as Mercury Living Presence and RCA Living Stereo, are in Reverse Polarity. You can squawk all you like.

I don't buy this nonsense about half or most recordings being out of phase or polarity or whatever you want to call it. It doesn't even make sense on it's face. Inverting the polarity completely changes the presence of the sound. Air is a single ended medium of transmission. You can compress it much more than you can decompress it. If you invert the polarity of the recorded instrument, the single ended nature of air will inject it's own distortion where none should otherwise be. Absolute polarity preservation will avoid that and not challenge the loudspeaker to replicate polarity that air cannot accurately convey. 
What more, the recording engineer I do listening for every now and then is a real fanatic about phase and polarity and most engineers understand that it's critical to achieving the sound they're looking for. 

Another excellent knee jerk reaction by the poster boy of knee jerk reactions. It’s not necessarily the recording engineer’s fault. It could the the mastering engineer. In any case there are no standards for Polarity. Any more than there are standards for dynamic range compression, another big fault that’s not the fault of the recording engineer. If you can’t hear Polarity, which in your case I imagine is true, then you shouldn’t worry about it.

kosst_amojan

Air is a single ended medium of transmission.

It is? Exactly what do you mean by that?

You can compress it much more than you can decompress it.

You can decompress air it until it's a vacuum, so it isn't clear what you mean here.

Costco is close but no cigar. For starters air shocks in cars compress as much as they decompress. Air is a compressible fluid. Pressure, volume, temperature, whatever. Hel-loo! Second, when the system is in Reverse Polarity the speaker drivers move OUT when they should be moving back IN and visa Versace. They are 180 degrees out of phase. Follow?

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