Phase setting driving my crazy

Jack from Indo

Im biamped now, and am wasting what could be productive hours of my life to sit there in my car and play with my H701. That does not bother me, I'm very happy. Maybe for the first time in my life. Lol.

PHASE QUESTION:

I understand well what phase is and why it is important.

What I do not understand is why sometimes it sounds better with my speakers in phase, and sometimes better with them out of phase*, depending upon the various test tones as well as different music I am using.

Is there some sort of standard, reliable way to set phase? I have been listening to sine wave test tones of different frequencies and assorted music. Depending on what I am listening to, either or phase setting sounds better.


*(on the H701, I set one one side to phase 0, the other to phase 180, or, I set both to 0 phase. )

MacLeod

Sometimes, depending on where the speakers are located and where they are firing, they very well may sound better with one out of phase. Im currently running my right mid and tweeter out of phase.

The easiest way to tell is to turn off the tweeters and sub via the crossover and just listen to the mids. Tune your radio to an AM talk station. This will be a mono signal. Now use the time alignemt and see if you can get the voice to center up good and be focused pretty well. After you do this flip the polarity on one of the mids and knock the TA back to 0 and try to get it centered up. Determine which sounds better. You have to use the TA because you can affect phasing by changing the time alignment.

If the voice becomes defuse and you can hear it from everywhere and it loses some low frequency response, then its out of phase regardless what the H701 says.

Now switch to the tweeters and do the same thing.

With mine, no matter what I did with the TA, the voice was always defuse with the mids in phase. With the right one out of phase, the voice is well focused not to mention it required a TON less delay to get the image right as well.

As to why some things sound better, it probably has nothing to do with phasing but rather one speaker is at a different angle to you so certain frequencies are coming at you at different intensities. Id wager that the higher frequencies are the ones smearing. Thats because theyre more directional and will be more affected by the angle of the speaker to your ears.