Phase Inversion on CJ equipment

It will do no harm to any of your components to invert the phase. The only difference is that the speaker cone will move in the opposite direction as it would with the phase non-inverted (i.e. out instead of in).

However, in your question, you state that the preamp is NON phase-inverting. If this is the case, there is no need to invert the phase unless your source or amp are phase-inverting.

Finally, if you listen primarily to CDs, don't worry too much about it either way. The recording engineers of today have nasty habits of changing the phase from song to song, so you will likely be in the wrong phase 50% of the time.

The CJ is phase inverting, not "is not" as stated in your post. It has a single stage of voltage amplifiction, which by it's nature inverts the phase. To correct this in the pre-amp would require another stage of voltage amplification. CJ has decided that a simpler circuit is better so they only have the single stage. I'm sure that some other designers use this approach, but there are many ways to achieve good results in electronic design. Reversing your speaker leads returns the signal to the same phase present at the inputs to the pre amp and has absolutely no affect on the operation of the power amp.

Some people are sensitive to this and some aren't. Try your speakers both ways to see if it makes any difference to you. The complicating factor is that many recordings are phase inverted because many studios don't pay attention to this during the recording process. With multi-track recordings, individual instruments may be out of phase with each other.

Hang on; some CJ preamps do not require you to invert the phase to have your system be "phase correct". On my CJ (solid state) preamp, only the moving coil phono stage is inverted, which can be corrected by reversing the wires on the tonearm going to the cartridge. There appears to be some confusion here. ARGENT: WHICH CJ PREAMP DO YOU HAVE??? You may want to contact CJ to clarify if you are not sure. They usually respond to eMails within 24 hours.

For the rest of your question: In a lot of cases with high end audio, "Less is More", so if a stage of the preamp is used only to make the unit phase correct, removing it removes a possible source of distortion. On my Stan Warren modified DVD player, Stan removed part of the output stage and replaced it I think with a couple Blackgate caps as a buffer. It means I now have to turn the volume up a little more, because the output is a little lower, but it is also a lot cleaner than before per Stan.

The explanation that Bruce gives parrots exactly what CJ describes in the 17LS manual. A phase inverting component is a bit unusual in the audio world which is why CJ points it out so explicitly in their manuals (and conversely, points out that the Premiere amps are not phase inverting). Simply follow the advice in the manual for the preamp and things will work correctly. I'm also surprised that your preamp is phase correct -- I was under the impression that all of the CJ preamps were inverted. Live and learn.

As for playing CD's, I haven't found quite as many phase inverted CD's as metaphysics estimates, so correct phase alignment in the system overall is generally important for best sound. Which of course begs the question as to why an engineer would invert the phase on a CD in the first place, but that's another topic...

Cheers,
Ken