Anything as " fast" as SPECTRAL gear?

I also believe most natural instrument music lovers will learn to appreciate the difference very easily when they have some coaching by a knowledgeable person who is not simply interested in selling a piece of equipment. Maybe there is an opportunity for me to establish a consulting service for those who really want their system properly set up-- not sell gear? Now I'm single and son is grown and on his own consulting and travelling may be quite enjoyable. Hmm. Any thoughts? Ideas? Would that service be of value to anyone?

ZD. I'm with you when you say it's a timing issue.

Regarding absolute phase/polarity, I would make two points:

1)It should be kept in mind that if a preamp provides a polarity switch, when the setting of that switch is changed not only is the polarity of the signal being inverted, but the circuit configuration that is being used within the preamp is being changed. In the case of a preamp having a balanced internal signal path, such as Ralph's designs, I would expect that to not be of much if any significance from a sonic standpoint, since the polarity change can be implemented in balanced designs by simply interchanging signal connections somewhere in the signal path. However in the case of preamps having an unbalanced internal signal path, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the preamp's sonics could change noticeably when the setting of that switch is changed. Perhaps more noticeably than the resulting "correction" of the polarity of the recording.

2)I disagree with the notion of a 50/50 split, because I believe that for most recordings neither setting can be thought of as being correct. My suspicion is that on 90+ percent of recordings the whole concept of maintaining absolute phase or polarity is meaningless. The great majority of pop recordings, and the majority of classical recordings as well, are captured with a multitude of microphones (dozens in the case of many orchestral recordings), and then the signals from all of those mics are processed through elaborate multi-track consoles where they are mixed, equalized, compressed, limited, and subject to who knows what additional effects. The end result, when it comes to absolute phase or polarity, is inevitably in those cases a random hodge-podge of different sounds with different phases.

So if one setting of the polarity switch on a preamp sounds better than the other on a particular recording it figures to be more likely the result of random synergy and subjective preference than the result of the system preserving the "polarity" of the recording.

I therefore agree with Ralph that the benefit of a well implemented polarity changing function in a preamp will primarily be to the unfortunately very small percentage of recordings that are engineered using minimal/purist mic techniques, and that are engineered with minimal post-processing. But then again, those tend to be the kind of sonically high quality recordings that many audiophiles (including me) particularly seek out.

Regards,
-- Al

"2)I disagree with the notion of a 50/50 split, because I believe that for most recordings neither setting can be thought of as being correct."

Just to clarify that, the 50/50 split seems to be the established mainstream opinion. Personally, I can't verify it, and think of as a rule of thumb that most people seem to go by.

"02-24-15: Ptss
I also believe most natural instrument music lovers will learn to appreciate the difference very easily when they have some coaching by a knowledgeable person who is not simply interested in selling a piece of equipment."

We may not be talking about the same thing. The polarity inversion that I'm referring to is a very subtle difference. So subtle in fact, that even though I could hear something happening when I invert phase, I couldn't even decide what position sounded better. Only in the last few years, and with a very detailed system that has excellent overall timing, can I reliably hear differences. But the difference is still fairly small.

Just to add one small thing to the discussion, most good CD players and digital separates also have a phase invert switch. So if your preamp doesn't have that feature, your digital source may.

Almarg. I feel I should have stated my comments applied to Spectral Audio gear as that is what I researched, bought and continue to own and follow. Their website will clarify their designs. Regarding subtlety, I certainly acknowledge that the more refined your system the clearer the difference exhibits. If your system is not well set up you won't hear or care about polarity, just like if you were listening with ear muffs on : - )