help with absolute phase

As a postscript to my last post, I wanted to mention an idea that my brother and I tossed around some time ago. Before I owned a component with a polarity reversing switch (Theta thinks it's important enough that they include them on their DACs) I wondered whether it was possible to make one's own polarity inverting cable by simply reversing the conductors at one end when soldering. Is this what Mapleshade has done? It occurred to me that if you owned a source component with dual outputs, you could feed them to two different inputs on your preamp; one would have the correct polarity, and the other would be inverted. Voila! Instantly selectable polarity. One further note on whether or not absolute polarity makes a difference; let's say you're listening to a piece of classical music on a great audio system. You've paid countless thousands of dollars to have components that are "fast," that is, that have great transient response because of short rise time, colossal slew rate and all of that. But you're listening to a recording that has the absolute polarity reversed, and when the percussionist whacks that huge bass drum in the midle of The Rite of Spring, your woofers initially suck in instead of blowing air out. You've lost some impact, have you not? A good audiophile should always be able to tell the difference between "suck" and "blow."

This is an interesting thread, so I may as well add my 2 cents. As some have said, about 50% of recordings are recorded out of absolute polarity. On some recordings, some tracks are in correct phase and some are 180 degrees out of phase. Also, on some tracks instruments can be recorded in opposite polarity to one another; for example, the piano and drums may be in correct phase and the brass instruments could be recorded in the opposite polarity. Add to this the fact that this phenomenon is normally only audible when reproduced over loudspeakers with accurate phase reproduction. Many multi-driver, multi-way speakers are NOT even close to being phase coherent, so that is why the effect is not apparent on some systems. I could be wrong, but to my ears, recordings with correct absolute polarity sound more forward and palpable in the midrange, which can be best heard on vocals and brass instruments. Incorrect polarity recesses the vocal, overemphasizes the treble and truncates the trailing edges of bass notes -- rendering the sound tight and bright, but not right. This view seems to be opposed to what some others have said. An excellent book on the subject for those interested, is Clark Johnsen's "The Wood Effect". Peace!

I have been buying all of the classical CD's from one source (a flea market dealer who is selling them for a classical music buff friend). I wonder now if the person is editing them from his collection because of this "phase thing". I was originally purchasing them for $3 a pop which has now been reduced to $1 and I buy whatever is there each week (so far approx. 40 CD's in all, many of which I have not yet listened to). I will add that with most of our pop records it makes only a slight difference though I prefer the switch in it's out position which offers a wider soundstge and more "reverb" as I call it which is probably "air" to most. The only popular CD that really has a right and wrong is an old one with Nat King Cole that is unlistenable in the regular position. The funny thing is that when I first got the DAC I was considering asking Bel Canto to "hard wire" the switch into the position that I liked to see if eliminating the switch would improve the sound. I was also irratated at having to make the choice when it always seemed to sound best in one position. Now I will leave it as is due to it's positive effect on some recordings. It would be nice to have this feature available on a remote control as Kelly mentions. I don't consider my system with Reynaud Twins to be highly resolving though I have had some strange things happen with this setup (like very nice power cords sounding horrible) and think that it may just be the combination that I have put together that definately has shunned some items that I have tried to add. Perhaps it does this to some source material or "phase" as well. The power cord episode drove me nuts as other users of the same cords with much better systems have had good results. I finally sent them back to be checked for defects.

Plato: That sounds like pretty much what I am hearing, especially the "truncated" (had to look it up) bass that sounds like the center of the note less it's harmonics.

Right, DeKay -- or to put it another way -- it sounds like the fundamental note minus the natural "decay". :)