Stereophile test CD2 In/Out of Phase test:question

It is also arbitrary which side of the road on which we drive, but it helps that there is a convention. In my experience, it often is very important to have correct absolute phase. I only wish I had an easier way to switch phase.

Tbg...Why do Yanks drive on the right side and Brits on the left? Here is a reasoned (non-arbitrary answer).

1...In England, when people got around on horseback, it was customary, when meeting a traveler coming the other way to draw your sword. Holding the sword up in your right hand, you would pass the other traveler to the left, so that your sword was between you and him. So the Brits drive on the left.

2...In America, with people traveling longer distances, stage coaches were common, and it was usual for a man to ride one of the front horses. When you mount a horse you do it from the left side. This goes back to when people wore swords, and the scabard was on the left so that a right-handed person could easily draw the sword. (The scabard would get in the way if you tried to mount the horse from the right, and the horse wouldn't like it either). Therefore, the stage coach horse rider was on the left front horse. Now, when you met another stage coach on a narrow road you would steer to the right so that the two guys on the horses could best judge the clearance as the coaches passed.

Can you think of any logical reason why a positive voltage should push the cone out, rather than in? (Be creative).

Presumably since the initial pulse of music is a positive pressure wave. This has always concerned me as the microphone moves away with this pressure. If it is phased properly, it seems to me that this would be a negative signal and thus with equal stages of amplification would reach the speaker as a negative signal, causing a retraction of the voice coil. This would indeed make JBL right and the others wrong.

I have heard your explanation about England's choice versus that in the U.S. It fails to explain France and the rest of Europe and obviously fails in Australia.

Tbg...France being screwed up needs no explanation. Australia is geographically inverted, so that explains them.

By the way one could take issue with your presumption that the initial pressure disturbance is positive. How about a gong, or less obviously a drum. (Any bipole source). The initial pressure disturbance polarity will depend on where the listener is located relative to the source.

Many years ago I traveled through the Suez canal, and I observed that the initial water disturbance (wave) due to the moving ship, as measured by water movement at the edge of the canal was down. This is counterintuitive. Although I was an Engineer for four decades I never quite figured out this phenomena that I observed when I was about eleven years old.

El, can you recommend any audiophile gong recordings so I can test your hypothesis.