Experimenting with reversing polarity to speakers

I might also suggest that all of you involved in this discussion need to read up on some basic electronics and physics before you comment. The above topic is one of the most commonly misunderstood topics in all of audio. The difference between phase(timing) and polarity (positive vs. negative charge values). Phase does have a very noticeable effect on sound, polarity not so much(as long as it matches). However when designing electrical circuits, circuits based on negative charges are quieter then positive because the noise in the natural world tends to be positive,i.e. static electricity,lighting, are positive. This would be a reason for inverting the polarity of a system,i.e. an amplifier.
Sound differences could be due to some unknown sensitivity in hearing and/or more likely the physical path the circuit takes,i.e. chassis ground connections( shared connections introducing noise) vs. physically isolated in and out connections. This being compounded further by mixing and matching components of different design's.

From the Gallo Classico CL-3 manual...
Advanced Connection: If you are an experienced listener, you should try connecting the Front Left and Right speakers with the polarity reversed. [i.e., positive (+) (red) on Amp to negative (-) (black) on Speaker, and negative (-) (black) on Amp to positive (+) (red) on Speaker].
Listen closely to the differences from the standard polarity hook-up, as this reverse polarity variable in the system can yield significant performance gains with a reversed polarity setup.

Any idea why A. Gallo recommends this and why reversing polarity works in my system? Imaging thru these speakers is focused with extended bass. (my preamp is non-inverting).
The design is a 3-way floorstander with a transmission line and no crossovers. Only one pair of binding posts.

Excerpt from Clark Johnsen's landmark article on Absolute Polarity in Issue 1 Positive Feedback Online:

"Oh, the Wood Effect. Discovered by Charles Wood at the Defense Research Laboratory in 1957, it was first reported in 1962 in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. "Wood used as a signal a sinusoid partially clipped during half of each cycle. The resulting sound had a different timbre when the flat-topped portion was presented to the ear as a rarefaction, than it did when leads were reversed and the flat-topped portion was presented as a compression." There you have it, ladies and gentlemen: An asymmetric sinusoidal signal, presented those two dissimilar ways, with no other distortion, was proven to sound very different each way. Let’s see, what else in the sonic realm generates asymmetric signals? Well, ta da! That would be musical instruments! Which explains how polarity permeates our entire audio world, albeit through negligence, because we hear normal and inverted polarity (more accurately, compression and rarefaction) so very dissimilarly, ,yet rarely are they differentiated by us in playback.

The abstract to The Wood Effect says it best: "Masked by random combination with other distortions in the music reproduction chain, an unsuspected major contributor has lain hidden: Aural sensitivity to ‘phase inversion’ — the Wood Effect."

"Music normally creates compression waves. Electronics, however, often invert that natural, positive polarity to unnatural, negative rarefaction, thus diminishing physical and aesthetic impact. The term Absolute Polarity uniquely describes the correct arrival to the ear of wavefronts from loudspeakers, with respect to actual musical instruments."

"Wrong polarity, when isolated, is obvious to everyone. Its present neglect results from habitual disregard for phase response, especially in loudspeakers."

But as to why I’m on the case again, there are problems in those Ultimate Audio articles by Mrs. Herron and Fredell—and elsewhere too, notably in an e-zine, in a piece authored by Doug Blackburn, outstanding for its wrong-headedness. These writers (and many others, too) confuse small-case polarity with Absolute Polarity. Also, they use "polarity" interchangeably with "phase." Phase could mean any degree, while polarity denotes precisely the 180° condition. Third, they all seem to think that the Absolute inheres in recorded media, whereas in truth it occurs only at the final impingement point: your ear. To quote Mr. Herron: "Absolute polarity can be lost... and again restored in many places in the recording and playback chain." No, Keith! You mean, simply, polarity. And not "lost," either: polarity never disappears, it only reverses itself, time and again."

And there is this little jewel from Clark Johnsen's article in Issue 75 of Positive Feedback,

"A corollary finding was that some LPs and most CDs at that time exhibited a fascinatingly anomalous behavior, viz. that tracks or cuts would actually alternate in polarity. Those LPs were mostly from Japan although the affected CDs originated from all over. This came as a revelation: that certain agencies in the industry did know! And had evidently developed automatic means to detect and systematize polarity to produce discs and records that because of the admixture could be enjoyed more or less throughout, on any system of indeterminate but fixed polarity, with no one the wiser to the subterfuge. (This particular claim has been repeatedly challenged, but facts are facts.)"

cheers

ghosthouse-

"The One" was the best speaker made by Totem.  You may want to seek out if you enjoy the brand.  Happy Listening!