Phase switch on pre amp use?

Thanks for the notes. Electricity has a mind of it's own and sometimes can be confusing. It struck me as odd that one can swap directions of the juice in an instant without causing some electrical grief. "Safety first" as my dad used to say.
-John

You will find that many high end preamps in particular will indicate that the preamp out is inverted phase. (And they do not have a switch to change it). This is due to circuit design philosophy, allowing a simpler circuit (read purer) in their opinion, by not needing addition circuitry to bring the phase back to noninverting.

Personally, I love having the phase switches available on components. I have one on my pre-amp (Calypso) and my CDP (Resolution Audio Opus 21 GNSC) and will use them when enjoying music intently. About 50% of the time, I will hear a difference and the other 50% of the time I will not.

FWIW, the Rel subs also have a phase switch and in their instructions it states that to find the correct phase for the set-up, compare the apparent volume with the switch at 0 and at 180 degrees. The louder of the two is the one the switch should be set to.

The phase switch is likely to be audible only if you have a recording that is completely phase coherent- using 2 or 3 mics in the recording. Any more than that and the phasing information becomes too confused to hear the effect of the switch.

I'm pretty sure we were the first company to offer this feature (1989). Although a minor effect or inaudible for many recordings, the pain in the rear that it can be to reverse the speaker connections in both channels is what prompted us to include the feature. No additional circuitry was needed in our case as the preamp was/is fully balanced-differential so reversing a couple of internal connections is all it takes.