phase correction for records?

I think , please educate me if i am wrong, phases (invert or non-invert) are not responsible for the size of soundstage.

The soundstage of a recording depends on how that particular recording was made (recorded, mixed, processed and mastered) and reproduced (what your system are capable of, how well you set up your speakers in your room and the acoustic character of your listening room...etc).

As along as your speakers are in-phase with each other (either inverting or non-inverting), then the soundstage only depends on the forementioned conditions.

If the speakers are out-of-phase with each other, then the soundstage, imaging are screwed up, diffused and impossible to locate the musicians within that acoustic space. This maybe responsible for the illusion of bigger soundstage.

Back to your experience, I believe that my Mobile Fidelity LP "Companion" by Patricia Barber was produced out-of-phase (also experienced by some other listeners ). When it is played , everything fused together in a very strange way.

Hi Jennyjones,
let me add my few pennies worth.
I can invert my pre-amp (includes phone-stage) as well as my CD-player. I mention this so as to comment on the result when doing this.
VERY, very, small difference in my system it is. A top of the rack Hi-End system will make it more noticeable I am told, and have no reason to question this.
I have SME 10, SME V, ML 326S, Pass 350.5 and Burmester 961, so I guess a bit better than Mid-Fi just to have the facts.

If the phase is inverted, I could argue to hear a little less upper bass, but would but bet on it doing a blind test.
Inverted phase makes e.g. the woofer 'suck in' rather then 'push out' if a drum is hit, etc.

But now comes the rub!
How many genuinely ALL IN PHASE recordings are out there?! Sloppy recording technique can have some of these multi-tracks recorded inverted and others in phase.
So in some, say "Duelund approved", super Hi-End system you now will enjoy one track better than another... invert the phase and some other track portion is now best, hey where to go next?

As regards to "compressed" replay: I VERY often get this doing an A/B vinyl vs digital, and it is NOT the players fault that many more CDs than LPs sound compressed. It's the crappy/sloppy mastering for digital, I say --- what else could it be? YMMV
(My player is a ML-390S and it CAN sound almost analog... when the software gives it a chance)

Hope to have added some perspective.
Greetings,
Axel

You can check to see if it's a phase (polarity) issue or not by playing one of your
problem records and then reversing the speaker cables* to BOTH speakers (at
the speaker end). See if you can hear a difference. This will also tell you
whether the speakers are polarity-coherent. Count your blessings if they're
not, because unless you want to go through the bother of constant speaker
cable switching -- and if you're really sensitive to the effect -- you'll have to
get a preamp with a polarity switch. I don't know of any integrateds that have
such a switch, but there may be some. Good luck, Dave.

* I assume you know to power down before doing this.