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Totally confused about phasing

Something very strange, and I guess very wonderful, just happened to my system. I got Stereophile Test CD 3 this morning, and played the second track, stereo phasing. To my surprise, it appeared that my speakers were out of phase. I looked at the back of my speakers and amp, and everything was connected corectly. I followed the advice in the CD booklet, and switched the connections on the back of ONE speaker. So now, red is going to black, and black is going to red. The change in sound almost gave me a heart attack. The imaging is now perfect!!! Before it was awful.

So am I to understand that something was marked wrong, either on my speaker cable or on the back of the speakers, or on the amp? I don't get it!!! I'm using Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cable, Silverline SR-15 speakers, and an Electrocompaniet ECI-3 amp.
omains
krellm7
163 posts
 
It is more common than one would think but there are many cases where manufactures reversed the polarity.
skipperrik
17 posts
 
Krellm7 is right. I experienced this once with a 47 Labs Gaincard amp that was manufactured incorrectly, so it is entirely possible that one of your components has a defect. A speaker cable that is labeled incorrectly could also cause it. A simple substitution with something as inexpensive as lamp cord would tell you if that is the culprit. You may also want to substitute a different pair of interconnects to see if they are the cause.
delsfan
19 posts
 
Since you (apparently) reversed the wires at one of the speakers at random, you might now have both +'s hooked to the minus sides, and vice versa.

Now try switching the connections at both speakers, your imaging should remain the same but you should hear more (or less) bass. If you have more bass, leave them as is; if not, switch them back.
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