Is Phase and polarity the same thing?

Chazz, I really don't understand this confusion, nor do I understand why Krell would call it a phase button. I have owned two line stages with polarity or invert buttons. Invert makes sense as it changes the polarity on both inputs. I guess also that it would make sense to call a subwoofer phase knob either phase, polarity, or even invert as there is just one speaker being controlled.

It is also confusing that some speaker companies invert the midrange driver and that some see the onset wave as negative and others positive. It seems to me that the withdrawal of the microphone represents an onset of the sound wave so the microphone signal should be inverted to push the drivers out.

Part of the problem, IMHO, is that most recording engineers care little about this. As Clark Johnson always says many, if not most, recordings are a mix of polarities as mikes are connect both ways. While presently I do not have the capability to invert or switch the polarity for recordings, in the past I have often found one setting sounded much better. Other recordings, perhaps because of what Clark says, yielded no best setting.

Why don't I have the capability to switch polarity. Both of my line stages could easily have such capability. The H-Cat has parallel outputs, so when used as single-ended, you could just switch the negative and positive leads to change polarity. My Exemplar line stage is parafeed as just changing the leads to the outputs would allow a polarity switch. Neither designer focussed enough concern to both with this, although both said they could alter my unit to provide the switch.

When a crossover has a 180 degree phase shift at the crossover frequency (12 dB) connection of the driver out of phase is the right thing to do.

Neither the mic diaphram nor the speaker cone moves in sync with the electrical signal, so it is not as simple as Tbg suggests. Some speaker manufacturers (JBL for example) have the cone pull IN for a positive signal.

Eldartford, as I said. But I don't know what you mean that speaker cones don't move in synchronically with the electrical signal. What do they move in synchronically with? If you mean, some manufacturers put some out of phase, I said that also.

Tbg...As I read your comment about some drivers being hooked up out of phase, it seemed as if you had no idea why they would do this. So I explained.

Even if cone excursion matches the electrical signal without delay (doubtful) the resulting sound wave will reach maximum pressure when the cone RATE of movement is maximum...not when the excursion is maximum. That's worth 90 degrees. Similar things with the mic. All in all it's more complicated than you suggest, and it's hardly surprising that opinions vary about phase. Some driver manufacturers (JBL for one) define polarity as cone move IN for a positive electrical input. I learned this when I was connecting a JBL driver in parallel with one of another manufacturer.

It's not even that complicated.
6db filter preserves phase.
12db filter inverts phase.
On my 1.6 maggies, the x-over has both 6 and 12 db/octave elements....can't for my worthless life remember hi or low is which, but as a result, the HF part of the panel is hooked up out of phase with the LF part of the panel.

I believe this is what Eldartford meant?