Out of phase speaker

jimmydep

This is my first post, I just ran an automatic speaker setup with a Yamaha receiver, it said one of my speakers was out of phase. Does this affect the sound quality of the speaker? How do I correct the problem? I did check all the wiring and it is correct.

wingnut4772

jimmydep wrote: »

This is my first post, I just ran an automatic speaker setup with a Yamaha receiver, it said one of my speakers was out of phase. Does this affect the sound quality of the speaker? How do I correct the problem? I did check all the wiring and it is correct.

Just one? Which? I'm not sure if your wiring is correct (black to black red to red) unless something is wrong with the speaker....

jimmydep

Just the right front speaker is out of phase, I checked all the wiring, interconnects, and speaker wires are correct. I'm using LSI 15's. They seem to sound fine.

wingnut4772

Hmmmm. Not knowing . Maybe something with the Yamaha? Maybe someone else will know.

F1nut

At the speaker, switch the red speaker wire to the black post and the black speaker wire to the red post, run the set up test again and report back.

jimmydep

I switched the red and black at the speaker and ran the auto setup again with no out of phase error message. I didn't hear any differance in the sound.
Thanks for the advice

F1nut

It would seem that your speaker is wired incorrectly. I would open up the speaker and find out where it's wired wrong.

bassfann

you will definately hear the difference out of phase,

RCFGuitars

I just joined this forum today in hopes of finding an answer to this same problem. I have a new Yamaha RX-V3900, and when I ran the auto set-up, it told me my 2 fronts were both out of phase. The wiring from the receiver to the speakers is correct. My fronts are SDA-2A's that I purchased new many years ago. My first thought was that the SDA effect had something to do with the out of phase message. In my Yamaha manual, it says that sometimes the auto set-up will give you an out of phase error message, but no further explanation is offered. I switched the pos / neg connections at the speaker, ran the set-up again, and the Yamaha now says all the speakers are in phase. Is it possible my SDA's were incorrectly wired from the factory? I did have them serviced by an authorized center in the early '90's, so maybe they did something to wiring. I am just not comfortable running these speakers with the wiring backwards without knowing why. Can anyone tell me the what color wires go to pos / neg on the drivers, so I can check them myself. Thanks in advance.

Face

Running your SDA's out of phase can cause problems. Disconnect the SDA cable next time you run the test. You have have to adjust some levels manually after reconnecting it though.

RCFGuitars

Thank you for the quick response. I forgot to mention that I did try the test without the SDA cable, and I got the same error message - "out of phase". That's why I tend to think something internal is wired incorrectly.

Face

It's not likely, but anything is possible.

If you mix brands/lines between mains, center, and rears, sometimes that can cause phase issues. Try swapping the cables on your center and see what happens.

RCFGuitars

Thanks again Face. Do you mean I should try switching the pos / neg on my center speaker, and then try another test?

By the way, all my speakers are Polks. Fronts are SDA-2A's, center is CSiA4, side surrounds are FXiA4's, rears are TSi200's, front presence are RM8's, subs are PSW505, and PSW125.

Face

Correct, try switching the pos/neg on your center.

Just because they're made by the same manufacture, doesn't mean they'll be in phase with each other. For example, before I went to a phantom center, I used a Tannoy center from 2001+ Tannoy mains from 1979. I had to reverse the polarity on the center even though they're both from the same company and are all dual concentric drivers.

RCFGuitars

Okay, I'll give that a try tonight, and post the results tomorrow. Once again, thank you for the very fast replies.

RCFGuitars

I switched the pos/neg on my center channel and ran the optimization test on the Yamaha. The part of the test that says it checks the speaker wiring now gives me 3 error messages: 1. Center channel reversed. 2. Right Front reversed. 3. Left Front reversed. All other speakers are checked as normal.
I switched the center channel back to the correct pos/neg, ran the test again, and the error message says that the wiring for the right and left fronts are reversed. I have checked the wiring to the fronts many times, and they are wired correctly from the receiver.
Could there be a wiring problem in the SDA's causing this? Yamaha says that if it sounds okay, then don't worry about it, but that doesn't tell me much. Any suggestions?

F1nut

Can anyone tell me the what color wires go to pos / neg on the drivers, so I can check them myself.

White and green are negative.
Black and blue are positive.

RCFGuitars

F1nut wrote: »

White and green are negative.
Black and blue are positive.

Thank you. I'll check them tonight.

RCFGuitars

F1nut wrote: »

White and green are negative.
Black and blue are positive.

Unbelievable! I looked at all the drivers last night, and assuming that you are correct about the wire colors ( which I am sure you are ), and assuming that the red dot on the speaker frame indicates positive ( which I am sure it does ), my speakers are wired backwards! Just like my receiver said they were.

All the drivers were replaced under warranty by a Polk service center in the early - 90's, and they have not been touched since. Is it possible that some damage has been done from having them wired backwards all this time?

Face

I doubt any damage was done. That's too funny though!

RCFGuitars

Face wrote: »

I doubt any damage was done. That's too funny though!

I agree: funny, and little embarrassing for me and the service center. In my defense, I have spent so much time on the road the past 15 years, that I haven’t used these speakers much since they were “repaired”. Thank you to those that helped me get to the bottom of this issue. Hopefully I can offer some help in the future.

F1nut

So, how do they sound now?

RCFGuitars

F1nut wrote: »

So, how do they sound now?

I haven't finished switching them all over yet. I'll finish that tonight. I have an Adcom GFA-5503 arriving in the next day or two, but I'll hook them up to my Yamaha RX-V3900 after I finish the switch tonight to run that test again, and see how they sound. I am expecting great things once I have the SDA's fixed and hooked up to that 5503. Although, from what I've been reading, it also sounds like I should replace my tweeters with RDO-194's. I assume I can order those directly from Polk. Hopefully in the next few days I can get this whole system dialed in.