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Invert Polarity in Digital Domain

Just curious if anybody has heard any differences with CD players which have the option to invert absolute polarity in the digital domain.

I have the Levinson 390S and I hear a clearer (especially voices!), albeit narrower soundstage with polarity setting to normal (interestingly, the player powers up to polarity=invert as the default). This holds true over a wide variety of discs, and for all types of music. The inverted absolute polarity setting is often more involving, though. My preamp and amp do not invert polarity.

I do not hear any differences at all by inverting polarity on the preamp (in the analog domain), by the way.

Thanks for any input.
hgabert
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
This is an area of real complexity, and unless you're really obsessive (like me, on occasion), I wouldn't recommend going there. It can drive you nuts. First of all you need really polarity-coherent speakers to hear consistent effects. My Gallo Reference 3s, unfortunately, fit that bill. Before I got them, I listened to the switched-polarity tracks on test CDs and couldn't hear a bit of difference. Now I can. Swell.

Roughly half the records and CDs out there were recorded in "normal" polarity and the other half in "inverted" polarity. Some labels are consistent -- DG, Mercury Living Presence, Riverside, and RCA tend to be inverted, while Philips, Columbia, Atlantic, and ECM tend to be normal. These are just examples.

Some discs have individual tracks in different polarity. One Richard Thompson LP has him "normal" and the back-up instruments "inverted," so I can pop him out or recede him into the mix depending on how I have things switched. I switch at the speaker inputs, using banana plugs, and yes it's a cumbersome pain in the butt.

Unlike you, I hear differences in the analog domain just as clearly as in the digital.
hgabert OP
41 posts
 
Thanks for posting some of the labels and their general polarity settings (as you have experienced it)! I need to test that.

My speakers are B&W 802 Nautilus, and I am not sure if they are "polarity-coherent." For example, the well-known audiophile war horse, Holly Cole's "Don't Smoke in Bed," has the piano either a little muddy, but bass and voice nicely defined (Polarity=normal), or, piano prominent and clear, but bass and voice recessed (Polarity=inverted).

On the DG Pollini: Chopin "Etudes, Preludes, Polonaises," I hear more piano texture with polarity inverted, and more sheen at the top end with polarity setting to normal.

What setting do you usually leave it on?
usarrn
21 posts
 
An issue of FI had once published a list of labels which invert polarity and those that did not. It was extensive and comprehensive, but contained on only one page. I had a copy but lost it. Does anyone know where to get either a copy of the issue it was in or the list itself?
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