phase inverted preamps...about

This'll be interesting. I can't imigine there would be a difference.
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I assume you're talking about switching the plus/minus connections at one end of the speaker cable to compensate for the polarity inversion. I can't see it making much difference which end (amp or speaker) you do the swap. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I have a Cary SLP-98L and a Joule Electra LA-100 MkIII and both are phase inverted. The Cary Manual sats to make the switch on the amp end. I don't have a Joule manual but was told to do the switch at the speaker end. So there you have it. As Ghostrider45 says it probably does not matter.

On the other hand I once had a pair of Spendor 7/1 speakers and took out the woofer to look inside. I found that the wire from the crossover leads to the woofer leads were reversed. At that time my preamp was not phase inverted, so I'm wondering if that configuration made the set-up inverted. I never could tell the difference when I switched the wires back.

I believe phase inverted and polarity inverted is two differnt things. Before switching polarities on speakers or amp better research info on the phase inverted pre. Hope this help.

If your speaker cables consist of two conductors made the same, just that one is marked red for positive and one is marked black for negative, then either way you invert phase you will still have one wire from the + amp terminal to the - speaker terminal, and one from the - amp terminal to the + speaker terminal. It makes no difference which wire is marked red and which is marked black.

Most people...if they do it at all, make the switch at the speaker end for no other reason than convenience I would think.

Dave

Just what Sogood51 said. Much easier at the speaker end for me.

Chuck

Rewind to Clio09's observation about the leads being reversed from the crossover to the woofer he pulled on the Spendor 7/1's. Various crossover designs require a phase inversion on one of the drivers (usually the mid-range) to maintain overall phase cohesiveness. Check out the Loudspeaker Cookbook for reference. There would be no reason to invert your speaker leads in this case. I hope that makes sense.

Wouldn't it be better at the speaker end since that would minimize the amount of inverted signal? :)

In my integrated amp manual it says that absolute phase is inverted and that you can correct by inverting positive for negative at the amp. It goes on to say that the phase of recordings is indeterminate so no matter which way you choose, you will be wrong about 1/2 the time anyway. So does it make sense that as long as you have each side set up consistently then it does not make a difference?

as you see there are both options and this is my main issue. Why there is not one standard ?

Thanks for your input though as I see it both ways work but one of them must be the right one ? or not ?

Well, Let me say this not sure beyond what a phase invert will do accept cause the amp to go out of phase to the speaker and possibly suck sound out of certain situations... BUT the Invert at the Digital domain is absolutly necessary if you hear it, It inverts the "1's" and "0's" at the recorded disk and 99% of the discs I have sound far better inverted than standard, much fuller and more analog like, this is because I found out after owning a device that does it that many recordings are mixed out of phase right at the studio, Why? No clue but it works, I have only seen this on fairly pricey players however.

@matrix *BUT the Invert at the Digital domain is absolutly necessary if you hear it, It inverts the "1’s" and "0’s" at the recorded disk and 99% of the discs I have sound far better inverted than standard, much fuller and more analog like,..

 

Reviving an old thread - 17 years later, I find this to be the case today in what I’m hearing now. While I cannot explain it, hearing a difference with streamed digital lossless content too. My tube preamp is "phase-inverting". When reversing polarity at the speakers, it does round off the highs a tad and pushes the sound stage back some too. Similar to what you describe ^^ **above ^^.

Many report you "cannot hear a difference 50% of the time". Not sure I totally agree. For whatever reason I can hear the difference on 80% or more of the tracks when reversing speaker polarity on my speakers with my phase-inverting preamp.

 

I can always tell a difference. I once purchased a new Rogue RP-5. NOWHERE in the manual does (or did at the time) state that the unit inverts phase. So I hooked it up like any other component. Something was not right. For giggles, I switched the speaker polarity and it sounded normal. I wrote Rogue and yes...the preamp does indeed invert phase. 

So with a Cary preamp or CJ for that matter,,, you really don't have to switch the plus and minus around???!!!  thanks