Does the Meridian 508.24 invert absolute phase?

Can't hear any differences on My Meridian 508 with any of my CD's using invert absolute phase button. Steve

Yes, the Meridian manual sais it is a phase adjustment, and just might be different from the polarity adjustment in the Rotel. But I would check with Meridian directly. The terms phase and polarity are interchangeable and could mean the other. Changing the phase in the Meridian may still not be the same as reversing your speaker cables. It may be doing what I described above.

This is pretty silly. He asked a question, which was answered. The meridian manuals say "you can use the remote to change the absolute phase of the analogue output signal. . . ." That's the same as reversing the speaker cables. The first pulse will make the woofer go backward instead of forward if the preamp and amp are non-inverting. Whether or not it's of any value is another issue. May or may not be audible. But it is fun to play with and sometimes it seems like an occasional cd sounds better reversed. But I wouldnt want anyone to test my ability to tell one way from the other.

I emailed someone at Meridian for a definitive answer. I honestly don't what that switch does. I just know that absolute phase is not always what you assume. The Rotel manual clearly stated that their phase switch only affected the polarity of the recording. It did not affect the phase of the overall system.

A system that really is out of phase is usually very noticeable, because certain frequencies will cancel out with the sounds created by the resonance of the listening room.

Reverse the speaker cables on only one speaker while playing something in mono. Then put the speakers right together (touching) with the grills facing each other. If the phase of each speaker is perfectly out of phase with the other there will be little or no sound. (Perfect cancelation).

I received a response from David Hall of Meridian Audio.
Dave.Hall@meridian.co.uk
The phase switch only changes the phase of the CD player. It does not affect the whole system. Therefore, this is the same as the Rotel I mentioned.
I am not Silly after all.

This makes sense. Preamps like Conrad Johnson and Blue Circle are out of phase and require you to reverse the speaker wires. Their literature states that they would have to add another gain stage to those preamps to make them phase correct. They don't because it would only degrade the sound. If all they had to do was reverse the wires going to the analog pre-outputs they would; but it evidently is not the same thing.