Phase Inverted DAC fix - w/o flipping spkr cables?


Some of the DACs I'm looking at are phase inverting - I do not really want to reverse my speaker cables because I have other compents that are not phase inverting hooked up.

Could I flip the leads on one of the interconnects? Would have to be cut open and resoldered I suppose - is this in any way dangerous or just plain stupid? If its this easy I would have expected someone to have invented a reverse phase IC by now.

And of course this brings up the question - are we really talking about phase or polarity? Reversing speaker cables is really just swapping the polarity - not truly the same thing as phase. So when they say a DAC is reverse phase - do they really just mean reverse polarity in one channel?

Polarity is a binary concept - pos and neg and that's it. Whereas phase is really a continuum of degreed offsets in the time domain. Or so I've read...
gdoodle

Showing 1 response by sugarbrie

Sorry, I am not sure, but I think you might be confusing yourself. First you say you do not want to have to reverse the speakers cables to invert the phase back, then in the next pargraph you say reversing the speaker cables is not phase inversion.

There is a lot of confusion between the terms phase inversion and polarity. Both terms are used to mean either possible scenarios by various manufacturers. Which is which depends on who you are talking to at the moment.

When a system is out of phase, caused by many components but usually certain brand preamps; switching the speaker cables will bring the system back into phase. If you don't, then the plus+ speaker terminal is the getting the minus- signal (and vise versa). It probably won't sound its best.

I would check with the DAC manufacturer about what they actually mean by phase inversion or polarity. Some DAC's and CD players have a polarity switch because the polarity if off during the digital recording process of the music. This has no affect on the phase or polarity of the audio system, just on how the DAC interprets the coding on the CD.