Is Phase and polarity the same thing?

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?

Magfan, I was trying to keep this simple as the primary concern was phase versus polarity. Yes, most speakers don't just have no phase shifting at all in their crossovers. Perhaps I should have limited what I said to single driver speakers.

Eldartford, again I know this but was trying to keep it simple and again there are no such complications with a single driver. As I said before, I had dealt with different manufacturers how to deal with the onset wave at the microphone and from the drivers. I had a pair of Tannoys long ago and like JBL they treat the onset wave as a withdrawal of the drivers. I always reversed the speaker leads for better sound.

Magfan...
6dB..... 90 degrees (not zero)
12 dB...180 degrees
18 dB...270 degrees
24 dB...360 degrees (which is like zero)

Eldartford, silly question, than.
If 6db / 12db are 90degrees apart, how could you get the drivers back to phase in the Magnepan 1.6, which I have confirmed does use 'one of each' in its x-over? Seems they'd be 90degrees out?

Also, with most if not all modern rock, absolute phase is strictly of academic interest, since no effort is made to preserve or even identify phase. On some recordings in the past, my absolute phase switch made a difference, on most recordings, not.