An Amazing Discovery

Early B.
Early B. Posts: 7,900
edited February 2006 in 2 Channel Audio
This morning I was relaxing and looking out of the window at the beautiful birds feeding in my front yard. For some reason, I looked down at my speaker cables and noticed that the guy who terminated them transposed the red and black shrink wrap on the ends of one of the cables. I could tell because my AQ Bedrocks have white lettering on one side of the cable. I've had these cables for over 6 months and I've been listening to my system with one of the speakers out of phase! The funny thing is -- my system sounded great.

When I switched the leads and popped in a CD, the sound was better than great -- it was amazing!! The soundstage blossomed, the background became smoother and much more airy. It's not necessarily more detailed, but I'm hearing a bit more detail that's already there. You can more clearly hear the echoes of the voices in the recording studio. The biggest difference was the vocals. More recessed. The artists sound more like they are on a stage and I'm on the 10th row. In essence, the music now has even more emotional appeal to it. On one of my favorite CDs, the sound was absolutely breathtaking. I was jumping around like a kid in a candy store. Now I gotta listen to all my CDs for the first time again.
HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50” LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub

"God grooves with tubes."
Post edited by Early B. on
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Comments

  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited February 2006
    Glad to hear you have it straightened out, and suprised at the same time that it didn't sound out of phase to you 20 seconds into listening to it.

    Phase is pretty obvious, at least in my experience.

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • Early B.
    Early B. Posts: 7,900
    edited February 2006
    Like I said, it sounded great even with one speaker out of phase. I'm already missing some of the positive elements the sound had before, such as the up front, "in your face" vocals and a little more slam. Overall I prefer it in phase, of course.
    HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50” LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub

    "God grooves with tubes."
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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited February 2006
    Yeah, there is no stereo image at all, with a speaker out of phase, that's usually the most obvious thing to notice - no 'centered' vocals / image.
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited February 2006
    So, in essence you were listening to one SDA-like speaker... And it sounded great! Just think what two would sound like! :D
    madmax
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 28,642
    edited February 2006
    I did this yesterday as I got done cleaning my stuff... had my right speaker out...

    It took me a few minutes as I never heard it before, but it was pretty obvious. No imaging at all - very lackluster bass as well...
    - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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  • Early B.
    Early B. Posts: 7,900
    edited February 2006
    Actually, there's a part II to this story that will nullify everyone's comments thus far, but would only add further personal embarassment, so I won't divulge it. Suffice it to say, however, that I plead temporary insanity.

    'Nuff said.
    HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50” LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub

    "God grooves with tubes."
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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited February 2006
    Come on, we've all eaten audio crow from time to time. Let me guess, you had L/R interconnects reversed somewhere also?
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • Loud & Clear
    Loud & Clear Posts: 1,538
    edited February 2006
    They weren't out of phase to begin with? You were jumping around like a kid in a candy store because you enjoyed the out of phase sound? haha.

    Well, I'm stumped. We're not talking about something involving peanut butter and house pets are we?

    Two Channel Setup:

    Speakers: Wharfedale Opus 2-3
    Integrated Amp: Krell S-300i
    DAC: Arcam irDac
    Source: iMac
    Remote Control: iPad Mini

    3.2 Home Theater Setup:

    Fronts: Klipsch RP-160M
    Center: Klipsch RP-160M
    Subwoofer: SVS PB12NSD (X 2)
    AVR: Yamaha Aventage RX-A2030
    Blu Ray: Sony BDP-S790
    TV Source: DirecTV Genie
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  • Early B.
    Early B. Posts: 7,900
    edited February 2006
    Loud & Clear wrote:
    They weren't out of phase to begin with? You were jumping around like a kid in a candy store because you enjoyed the out of phase sound? haha.

    Well, I'll never admit it...:p :p
    HT/2-channel Rig: Sony 50” LCD TV; Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player; Emotiva LMC-1 pre/pro; Rogue Audio M-120 monoblocks (modded); Placette RVC; Emotiva LPA-1 amp; Bada HD-22 tube CDP (modded); VMPS Tower II SE (fronts); DIY Clearwave Dynamic 4CC (center); Wharfedale Opus Tri-Surrounds (rear); and VMPS 215 sub

    "God grooves with tubes."
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  • Mike Reeter
    Mike Reeter Posts: 4,315
    edited February 2006
    I bought a pair of AQ Bedrocks from Audio Advisors e-bay store,spade terminated...Both cables were cross terminated.

    No wonder they were soo much cheaper:D
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited February 2006
    Best to eat crow while its still warm.

    Ok, we know who doesn't have a golden ear around here...LOL!!
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • dragon1952
    dragon1952 Posts: 4,899
    edited February 2006
    They were reversed on the amp end too so it wasn't really out of phase...lol!
    2 channel - Willsenton R8 tube integrated, Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE DAC, audio optimized NUC7i5, Windows 10 Pro/JRiver MC29/Fidelizer Plus 8.7 w/LPS and external SSD drive, PS Audio PerfectWave P3 regenerator, KEF R3 speakers, Rythmik F12SE subwoofer, Audioquest Diamond USB cable, Gabriel Gold IC's, Morrow Audio SP5 speaker cables. Computer - Windows 10/JRiver, Schiit Magni 3+/Modi 3+, Fostex PMO.4n monitors, Sennheiser HD600 headphones
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  • cmy330go
    cmy330go Posts: 2,341
    edited February 2006
    :eek: Wow. I'm with Russman on this one. I'm really surprised you didn't hear it. Usually when I walk into a store I can immediatly tell when a pair of speakers is out of phase. No center image, and that weird hollow sound in your ears. (maybe that's just the echo in my head):D

    I guess further proof that not all people hear things the same.
    HT
    Mits WD-65737, DirecTV, Oppo DV-970HD, XBOX ONE, Yamaha RX-A1030, Parasound Halo A23, Rotel RB-985, Music Hall MMF-7, Parasound PPH-100, LSi-15, LSi-C, LSi-FX, LSi-7, PSW-1000, Monster HTS2600

    2 CH
    Parasound Halo P3, Parasound Halo A21, Sutherland Ph.D, VPI Classic 3 w/ 3D arm & Soundsmith Aida Cartridge, Arcam CD72T, B&W 802 S3, Monster HTS2500,
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