Polarity Explainantion
agolcha
Posts: 4
Can someone tell me what exactly happens when you reverse the polarity of a speaker? I have a set of DB 6500's and I wanna know what'll happen if I reverse
a) the polarity of the input
b) the polarity of the bass unit from the crossover
c) the polarity of the tweeters from the crossover
a) the polarity of the input
b) the polarity of the bass unit from the crossover
c) the polarity of the tweeters from the crossover
Post edited by agolcha on
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When you wire a speaker out of phase all it does is fire that speaker later than the on that is in phase. So if you have one speaker closer to you than another, you may be able to have them hitting your ears closer to the same time by wiring one out of phase.
For example, my tweets are mounted closer to me than my mids are and as a result they dont mix well and are kind of harsh. I switched the phase on my tweeters so now their output reaches me a little later than the mids which matches them more closely and helps in them blending together.
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Shutting the amp down, we switched the R's for B's and the B's for R's on both speakers and listened to the track again. Ryo's piano instantly sounded more intentional, the snares and cymbals came back to life with the crack and snap that you would expect.
I ran a large number of records through those speakers last night and am confident that this pair is reversed out of the factory.
Is there a way for you to open up your speakers and verify your findings? Or no need, since the ear test is good enough?
Maybe someone took off the binding post nuts and put them back on wrong....
Wait.
Whoops.
oh... well... not sure exactly what the endgame is for today's poster, but as a general tool for checking polarity there's a handy and not terribly expensive gizmo called the Cricket.
https://www.parts-express.com/galaxy-audio-cricket-polarity-test-set--245-261
It is, I'd opine, invaluable -- at least for folks like me who 1) fool around with old drivers of, shall we say, varying polarity standards (I'm looking at you, JBL!) and/or 2) DIY loudspeakers or crossovers.
Trust but verify, you know?
PS My apologies to today's earlier poster(s) if this information is utterly useless!
I did... And read his post, and face palmed to it and the previous post from MacLeod.
Switching phase does not delay the signal, as MacLeod suggests. Nor does flipping phase on BOTH channels change the relative phase of the signal. There should be no noticable change to the output, all other things remaining the same. What did happen, is the voltage is now being pushed through the XO backwards, so the speakers are now in front of the XO, so to speak.
"For example, my tweets are mounted closer to me than my mids are and as a result they dont mix well and are kind of harsh. I switched the phase on my tweeters so now their output reaches me a little later than the mids which matches them more closely and helps in them blending together."
It says Polarity Explainantion, not Polarity Explosion, but I think it supposed to say Polarity Explanation. Or perhaps Polarity Exploitation.
It is quite obvious to the ear - especially on percussive instruments (specifically snares, cymbals, and piano).
What is interesting though, is that you may have trained your ear to listen to your track the wrong way. Therefor, the only way to know is to switch and then switch back until you are satisfied with your findings.
Just BE SURE to power off your amp as you are doing fiddling.
- i am sure many posters here will tell me if it is true or crapolla -
I was told that there was no standard for polarity established years ago - so that the polarity of the recording could be different coming out of the studio than what you have your speakers set at home. I am not sure if there is truth to it, but the person who described this problem to me says that, again, the only way to know is to listen to the same recording repeatedly going back and forth until you are confident with your selection.
Well there "could" be a sliver of truth to it. Some Pre-amps have a reverse polarity switch. My Carver C16 has one, it is disengaged 99.99% of the time. Sometimes I do play with it and have never heard drastic differences engaged or not.
My stuff is set + to + - to - the last thing i worry about is whether or not the studio has reversed the polarity. I sit and listen to the music.
Not yet - I will check when I am home - if they switched the caps, they would have had to switch all 4 on both speakers since the 3.1's have 4 binding posts per.
Considering how many gain stages, compressors, expanders, filters, converters happen between these two ends of the chain it's a minor miracle if absolute polarity is maintained. The Sheffield record company would suggest that listeners reverse the polarity of their speakers for best results with their direct-to-disc recordings.
His "discs" are made of vinyl.....
Fixed that for you (both)