help with absolute phase

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". :)

Rolling eyes now.

Dekay: Don't forget that power cords, like every other piece of wire, take a certain amount of time to break in. The last time I changed power cords it took several days for the improvement to become apparent. You can't pass judgement on a power cord or interconnect cable until it's been in your system for awhile, some say around 400 hours of actual use. BTW, I purchased my Parasound 2000 preamp largely because it had a phase reversing switch on the remote. Shortly afterward, I read that phase inverting switches add an additional circuit -- to say nothing of the switch itself -- into the signal path. More garbage between you and the music = BAD! For this reason, the Parasound has an alternative direct output that bypasses the phase inverting function for serious listening. You can't win. It's helpful, however, to be able to determine the phase setting that sounds the best on a recording-to-recording basis right from your listening chair, and then mark it right on the jewel case for the CD. Regrettably, this really only works fairly well with classical recordings, and even then, only with a good one. In a multi-mic recording, mics may be out of phase with one another. On the pop music side, I have a Joni Mitchell CD where the absolute polarity jumps around from cut to cut. Pop albums are frequently recorded in multiple studios, with the master carried around the world to have tracks added. Off to Nashville to have a rhythm guitar track added, then off to someplace else to record the horns, etc. Fleetwood Mac, for example, is notorious for this. By the time you pop that CD into your system, God only knows WHAT you’ve got.