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Phase inverting preamps

Apologies in advance for this newbie question. I was reading some reviews of preamps and a couple said that the preamp "inverts phasing" and that this would have to be accounted for elsewhere in the system. I know what phasing means, but how and where does one allow for it elsewhere in the system?
4yanx
imhififan's avatar
imhififan
2,205 posts
 
Phase or Polarity?
http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.com/30/basics/phase-or-polarity/
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cleeds
5,959 posts
 
herman

If you take a pure sine wave and shift it 180 degrees then it will look EXACTLY the same on an oscilloscope ...
Pretty much!

... and will sound EXACTLY the same
That is very debatable. My preamp has a phase invert switch and on some recordings, the difference is very audible.
herman
2,259 posts
 
When you invert the polarity on your preamp it is not inverting a sine wave, it is inverting a complex musical waveform. The initial WHACK on a drum has much more energy in one polarity than the other. It the initial sound is a compression and you change it to a rarefaction by inverting polarity it may well sound different

Play a pure tone (one frequency) then  invert it to see if you can tell a difference. Hint... you can't.
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