Is Phase and polarity the same thing?

It is estimated that about 50 percent of recordings are recorded in reverse polarity... so about half of your recordings should sound a little better with the polarity inverted.

Phase is frequency dependent as Kal said, and it is used by many as a synonym for polarity, which is not correct.

To reverse phase you reverse the connections to one speaker.

To reverse polarity you reverse both.

John C.

Sorry, Hotsauce, but you are wrong. Reverse the connections to one speaker and you reverse polarity on one channel. Reverse the connections to both speakers and you reverse polarity on both channels.

Now, perhaps, you were trying to say that, if you reverse the polarity of one speaker, the two will be said to be out of phase with each other.

Kal

If you reverse (interchange) (+) and (-) wires you shift phase by 180 degrees, at all frequencies. That's why "polarity" (which way the wires are connected) is often described as "in phase" or "out of phase".