Speaker phase observation and question?


Hi everyone,

After months of playing around with positive phase and reverse phase connections to my Monitor Audio Silver 8 speakers, I have made a couple of observations. When connected in positive phase (red - red, black - black), the speakers put out pretty substantial bass, but the mids and treble are somewhat subdued. Upon reversing the phase, the mids and treble open up substantially, and the bass becomes somewhat subdued. To my ears, I actually prefer the reversed phased.

Moving forward to the current day, I purchased an app that tests phase using a generated tone. In testing my speakers, both bass drivers test positive phase, but the mid and treble test negative. I had read somewhere that some manufactures wire the drivers like this intentionally, but am confused as to whether or not this is the case with my speakers, or if it's a manufacturing flaw?

Any thoughts? 
chewie70

Showing 8 responses by chewie70

Thank you to everyone else that has taken time to comment, this has been for informative.
sfall, I don't believe there is anything horribly wrong with my system, this just confirmed what I was hearing and seeing with the polarity test.

To answer your initial question, my rig is Simaudio pre/DAC, Emotiva XPA 2-channel 300wpc amp, and Audio Art single shotgun run cables, with custom jumpers that mirror the cables.

Although I hear substantial differences between lows and highs when changing polarity, the system sounds amazing either way. I think if I could leave the bass in positive polarity, and reverse the polarity of mid/treble, the sound would be perfect. I should note that I am almost completely deaf in one ear; so when I say a "substantial" change, it my just be that I am hearing frequencies differently than others??
Hi sfall, to answer your question, I am swapping the (+) and (-) to change polarity. However, since the speakers are internally wired in both positive and reverse polarity, and change that I make will always have one set of drivers in reverse polarity. Even if my pre/DAC had a phase switch (which it doesn't), it wouldn't make a difference and the outcome would be the same.

My cables are a double run (i.e. shotgun) into single terminations, so not bi-wired.
Hi erik and asvjerry! Thanks for your input on room correction. I have briefly looked at it, but really know nothing about it. From what I understand, you have to have a dedicated computer to run it? I have also looked at the DEQX system, but am not enthused by the price. I wish that there were audiophile grade EQ's available, as that would probably solve the problem as well.
Thanks harrylavo! Although I have no desire to change my speakers, absolutely love them 95% of the time, I will look into your recommendations to see if I come across anything that truly Wow's me.
Thanks everyone. This has been extremely informative, and I have learned far more about speaker design than I could have imagined.