Thiel Owners

Todd - I mis-spoke to a degree. Much of the best modern equipment is phase coherent, but there is plenty of gear that employs global feedback, steep filters, etc. which introduce phase anomalies at super-sonic frequencies, which are known by some to be audible. Also cable can introduce such anomalies. Big discussion with contentious disagreement.  So, I retract my global statement. Note that much modern state of the art gear is paying attention up to perhaps 200kHz. Reading the performance of square waves, impulses and step responses tells the story. Beware when a review makes excuses that include "beyond human hearing". To match the ABrain's discernment in the time domain (a couple milliseconds), you need a couple hundred kHz in the frequency domain. So, old-fashioned brick wall CD upper limit 22kHz filtering will introduce phase distortion that is audible.  The gear that you guys consistently choose is generally very good in its phase performance.

hi Todd,  i may be over my head here but there are two kinds of phase that I know of.  One is absolute phase which is easy to test with the Reference recordings burn in and test cd.  that shows if something is hooked up incorrectly and thus out of phase.  the other is much tougher as the only way to know is to have a button on the preamp or DAC (my PS DAC has it) where you just test for in phase or out of phase.   this has more to do with the recording than anything in your system. 

Phase is used to mean different things. The signal reversal that ronkent mentions is actually polarity, where the entire signal is switched plus for minus. That is straightforward to troubleshoot. Put a 4 volt DC signal way up front in your signal chain and your speakers should push forward into the room. (except that some crossover types push some and pull the others. So, use the woofer as your guide.) The "button test" identifies whether the recording is right or backwards. This is also polarity (called absolute phase). Proper polarity will sound focused and reversed polarity will sound diffused. Negative polarity is now generally considered an error, but it happens.
The stuff I am talking about references the phase relationships among the harmonic structure of the signal. That's a real rat's nest which the user can't unscramble. Those ratty problems are generally ameliorated by speakers which scramble phase - higher order networks are already asking your brain to unscramble and there simply isn't enough processing power to further decode what's going on in the actual signal. Higher order networks are in that way forgiving - more recordings with more problems will sound better, or at least their evils will go unnoticed.

Please note that I recognize my opinions as being marginal. On a panel of audio engineering experts, I would be crucified or perhaps kindly tolerated. However, on a panel of aural neuroscientists, I would get at least polite inquiries regarding my observations.

ronkent - that live album at Stony Mountain is a normally produced remote recording, pretty good as they go. Her studio albums have higher audiophile values. Above I described the first Dancing at the Gate, later Will Ackerman produced Color of Light which has his (as in usual Windham Hill) high production values, but uses 18 mics and lots of gizmos and signal manipulation to get "his sound". That is the album where Dana and I "caught" (on CS2.2 / Classe) numerous, ongoing plugs and other artifacts which Will with his $multimillion studio insisted couldn't be heard. Then Dana produced locally "Above the Fields", which is very carefully and well done and can take you there.

If you like solo piano and have a contemplative streak, I highly recommend Dana's work.

hi Tom,   thanks for the clarification on phase, absolute phase, and all those other phase things.  i had mixed up polarity with phase but your comments make me realize how many things can go wrong in the process.   Also thanks for the info on DC.  I will have to get the Dancing album.  your comment about WH was interesting as i found many of their albums clean but not real sounding.  My fave artist on WH was Michael Hedges who was such a great talent and gone way to soon