Polarity of speaker drivers

glai,

Not by 90% of listeners, no. There are some who claim to be able to hear this difference, and I cannot prove if they can or cannot. All I can say is I most definitely cannot.

What all listeners could hear is if the drivers are not matched properly. Take a look at the second graph on this page:

http://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/lm-1-bookshelf-measurements.html

You'll see a severe dip that happens when the tweeter is inverted from normal. It's quite audible.


Best,

Erik

Forgot to mention, you can experiment with full-range drivers, those that have no crossover, relatively cheaply. Madisound is selling a complete kit on sale. Some people get a couple of hits of that and never look back to multi-way speakers again.

@sbank is right.

However, that not every speaker maker has adopted time and phase matched designs should tell you something about how important it seems. If time coherence was that revolutionary no one would be able to sell any other kind of speaker.  However this is not the case.

Make up your own mind, of course and buy what you will enjoy.

I think maybe it's a mistake to learn to tell speaker polarity by ear. :) I mean, let's say you can learn this through experimentation and feedback. You go from 2016 when you can't tell speaker polarity, to sometime in 2017 when you can. Doesn't that just make your comfortable music world more limited?

Best,


Erik

I put together a speaker kit, the LM-1, and posted the simulation files so you can play with crossover design yourself. This may help you get a better understanding of polarity and phase relationships.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/try-your-hand-at-crossover-design-free

Best,


Erik

Well, I think that trying to divine what speakers will sound better or worse based on crossover complexity is very difficult indeed.

While I have my own preferences for drivers, and crossover components, I would always let my ears listen before worrying about the technology. Same with DAC chips. Implementation and total system synergy matters mroe to me than statistical evaluation of components.

My LM-1 Kit has a single cap and 1 resistor on the way to the tweeter by the way, with only 9 crossover components in total. The woofer has only 1 coil on series, and has fantastic phase integration between the two drivers.

Best,

Erik