Question about inverting polarity

I think you can only tell if a CD is recorded out of phase by guessing with your ears??

some recordings are quite intentionally produced "out-of-phase" to maximize soundstage width. the most recognizable of these are "q sound" products, including roger water's "amused to death" and madonna's "music." -cfb

Cornfed and Sugar, thanks for the additional info. I don't know if the BAT "polarity" switch actually reverses phase or not, I'll ask them. That Boulder piece is certainly a marvel, wish I had a chance to hear it, or even see it, around here.
Off topic tangent to Sugarbrie/Monotrub--my FM antenna that I had installed blew down in the recent high winds! and it was only that Magnum dynalab wand antenna. Next time around, I'm going with an actual rooftop installation, hopefully shielded by the chimney.

Just read an article on this.If you have 2 items out of phase--say a cd payer and pre-- no need to change the speaker wire. They cancell each other out. 1 item/3 items;change the speaker wire.

If it's out of phase won't you lose a lot of bass response because the woofers are working against each other, where as inverting polarity just switches left to right and vice-versa? My Bel Canto DAC 1.1 can do this in the digital domain so I can invert on the fly, but I rarely find a need to. Boy this is a confusing topic.