Preamp inverts phase question:

Adampeter -- Re absolute polarity checkers, looking at their website I suspect that the Smart Devices units that were suggested as possibilities in your other thread are no longer available.

In any event, they may very well not be worth the expense, considering especially that you would only be using them once, at least until you were to replace a system component.

I suggest playing a few high quality audiophile-oriented recordings that were made using just 2 or 3 mics (that will probably be indicated in the album notes), and that contain a lot of percussive sounds.

Then re-listen with your speaker connections reversed. See if you hear a difference in the sharpness, crispness, and realism of the leading edge (the very beginning) of the percussive notes. If you do, use the connection polarity that sounds best. If you don't hear a difference, assume the power amp is non-inverting, and connect plus to minus so that the inversion in your preamp is corrected for.

On another note (no pun intended :)), re the statement that 50% of recordings are out of phase, I would go further, and put it a little differently.

I would say that on 90+ percent of recordings, the whole concept of absolute phase or polarity is meaningless. The great majority of pop recordings, and the majority of classical recordings as well, are processed through complex multi-track consoles where they are subjected to a bewildering array of effects and mixing. Not to mention that the original takes were probably done with a virtual forest of microphones (particularly in the case of typical poorly engineered recordings of symphony orchestras). The end result, when it comes to absolute phase or polarity, is inevitably a random hodge-podge of different sounds with different phases.

So even if you had a preamp that provided on-the-fly polarity control, if one setting sounded better than the other on a particular recording it would more likely be due to random synergy than to your system preserving the "polarity" of the recording.

Getting the polarity of your system correct is relevant primarily to the unfortunately very small percentage of recordings that are well engineered, using purist techniques. But then again, those are the recordings that we Audiogon'ers tend to have particular interest in.

Enjoy!
-- Al

I didn't read my Cary Audio SLP98 manual when I first got it, and thought the sound was muddy and diffuse. But I thought it was just a break in symptom. When I read the manual and switched the speaker cables: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Dopogue: I get the point about recording, but we can't do anything about what's already done, so why worry.
We can control the way are gear is hooked up though, that's the point and what the OP was asking about.

Why argue the point? Just do what the manual says. What's so difficult about that?

Why argue the point? Just do what the manual says. What's so difficult about that?

Because all the manual can tell you is if that particular component inverts. But what counts is that the system as a whole should not invert, which as has been explained means that the total number of inverting components and inverted connections should be an even number (0 or 2 or 4).

As to "why argue the point," that was exactly what I was getting at in one of my earlier posts. Just get the overall system polarity correct (i.e., non-inverting), and then you don't have to worry about whether or not it makes a difference.

Regards,
-- Al