Totally confused about phasing


Something very strange, and I guess very wonderful, just happened to my system. I got Stereophile Test CD 3 this morning, and played the second track, stereo phasing. To my surprise, it appeared that my speakers were out of phase. I looked at the back of my speakers and amp, and everything was connected corectly. I followed the advice in the CD booklet, and switched the connections on the back of ONE speaker. So now, red is going to black, and black is going to red. The change in sound almost gave me a heart attack. The imaging is now perfect!!! Before it was awful.

So am I to understand that something was marked wrong, either on my speaker cable or on the back of the speakers, or on the amp? I don't get it!!! I'm using Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cable, Silverline SR-15 speakers, and an Electrocompaniet ECI-3 amp.
omains

Showing 1 response by skipperrik

Krellm7 is right. I experienced this once with a 47 Labs Gaincard amp that was manufactured incorrectly, so it is entirely possible that one of your components has a defect. A speaker cable that is labeled incorrectly could also cause it. A simple substitution with something as inexpensive as lamp cord would tell you if that is the culprit. You may also want to substitute a different pair of interconnects to see if they are the cause.