Is phase control switch a deal breaker for you?


I just came from a preamp with a phase control switch to one without.

I wasn't sure if I was really missing something, until I was told that DG's recording in the 60s and 70s are mostly phase inverted.

Your thoughts?
kschiu
Viridian, I can't speak for all preamps but on our preamps the phase switch is very simple, as our preamps are internally balanced. So to do the phase reversal requires no circuitry other than the switch itself.

I have found that the switch does not have much use unless you are listening to a fairly pure recording- one that is done with a minimum of microphones (hopefully only 2 and if there is a third it is the center channel). Then the difference can be quite noticeable. I've not found the speakers to play a huge role in this.
Ralph, you need to immediately send me one so that I can verify your outlandish claims; please contact me off board for my shipping address.

Seriously Ralph you always educate me, and I would have no reason to think that it is not exactly as you say it is. In fact, it's funny that you join in, I was just looking at a picture of you in Positive Feedback Vol 7, No. 4, page 37 from Spring of '98, when you were young and still.....handsome in a bolo tie wearing sort of way.
Wolf Garcia,

Ralph is Ralph Karsten, the founder and principle designer of Atmasphere electronics. His designs are fully balanced, so, phase reversal is accomplished just by using a switch. Single ended electronics would require an additional "active" amplification stage, and for that reason, there is much more of an issue of whether the sonic benefits of the ability to reverse polarity is worth the inevitable degradation from having another amplification stage.