Riddle me this....


It was recently suggested to me that by reversing the polarity of two stereo

speakers it will readjust  the depth of field in your soundstage.

 

In case that is unclear- If a voice was perceived as being one foot behind the

speakers and you swapped the positive to negative on the terminals of both

speakers it would make that voice move to being perceived as 

one foot in front of the plane of two stereo speakers.

 

Has anyone heard of this experiment and what can you

share about it?

 

128x128jeffseight

Results Depend upon the type of speaker (unidirectional vs dipole vs bipole and line source vs point source), the room, and listener bias. But no, it’s not as simple as your proposal suggests. With my dipolar ESLs, I hear no effect at all of changing phase by 180 degrees.

When you reverse the polarity the first thing that you notice is that a voice that was centrally located and focused becomes very unfocussed. It's not a good idea for any reason.

I have reversed the polarity of my apogee duetta speakers because my preamp inverts phase, the voices are centrally located and the focus is just fine.

@invalid 

Well of course, if the pre inverts phase you need to reverse the polarity at the speakers.