Absolute polarity in your playback gear and/or your favorite music - audible or not?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Thomas_A, Jul 6, 2018.

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  1. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    I know nothing about that album so I couldn't tell you if it makes a good change or not. But yes, you can invert the absolute polarity in software.
     
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  2. Thomas_A

    Thomas_A Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Uppsala, Sweden
    Well they are not correct regarding audibility. The effect when you have a asymmetric signal is that the ear hear just one half of the signal (half-way rectifier). If you revert this, you will have a switch in frequency content, and you will hear a change in pitch and timbre. This is NOT the same as hearing the actual phase, but a psychoacoustic phenomenon that indirectly becomes audible when you change the polarity.

    You can do the tests in with the signals in the previous thread linked above. Use good headphones.
     
  3. JayNYC

    JayNYC Chase that sound

    Location:
    Miami Beach
    @Plan9 is the SACD of III/Melt somehow better suited for judging absolute polarity changes than the standard CD?
     
  4. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Well, who's with me?
     
  5. Marsh1

    Marsh1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    I’m with you sir, perhaps we could define this in a slightly different way; others please correct me if I have this wrong. Aren’t we talking about ‘Absolute Polarity’ vs. ‘Relative Polarity’? Absolute being the polarity of your playback system and Relative being the polarity of the source material. One or both having the possibility of being out of phase. Am I stating this correctly?
     
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

  7. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    I simply haven't checked the "standard" CD (I guess that by this you mean the non-SACD 2002 remaster).
     
  8. Spaceboy

    Spaceboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Edinburgh, UK
    So it it possible your equipment could be changing the polarity without you knowing?
     
  9. deadcoldfish

    deadcoldfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Santa Rosa, CA
    Yes many equipment specs don’t mention if it inverts polarity or not, so yours may not preserve the polarity of the input signal.
     
  10. Spaceboy

    Spaceboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Edinburgh, UK
    But why would they do that?
     
  11. JayNYC

    JayNYC Chase that sound

    Location:
    Miami Beach
  12. Thomas_A

    Thomas_A Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Uppsala, Sweden
    I am with you to the extent that it is audible during certain conditions as the previous tests show and since you can easily fix it, just do it. Problem is those recordings that are flipped already but that is just to accept.
     
  13. ajawamnet

    ajawamnet Forum Resident

    Location:
    manassas va 20109
    You can always get one of these and oscilloscope:
    Minirator MR-PRO / MR2 I NTi Audio
    With a 2 channel scope, compare line level in to the power amp output. You can also use a Lissajous type display, tho any phase shift/delay in the system will be apparent.

    Do this all the time in the lab to compare input to output latency - here's an example of me beating on audio gear:
     
  14. Thomas_A

    Thomas_A Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Uppsala, Sweden
    I think only the manufacturer can answer that. Either they do not care about it or it is simply design flaws.
     
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  15. LitHum05

    LitHum05 El Disco es Cultura

    Location:
    Virginia
    I just realized today that I’ve been making this same mistake. I’m trying to get reacquainted with my Beatles records. But boy do they sound weird!

    I may as well pose the question here. Have any of you ever switched phase on the 2014 Beatle mono records? Are they supposed to sound very different??
     
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