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inverting (both) speakers polarity : any audible difference ? any danger for speakers ?

NTK

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I think that microphones and recording techniques are completely irrelevant in the context of audio playback. Because whatever was done with polarity during production, that's the product they were happy with, so that's what needs to be played back.
For proper playback, all that matters is that your speaker pushes the woofer forward for waveform peaks and pulls it back for troughs. If it does that, it's working correctly. If it does the opposite, it's working incorrectly. That obviously goes for the speakers used in production too, because we want consistency.
This speaker behavior can be easily checked with an audio editor and a very low frequency square wave.
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Throwing another wrench into this discussion. The forward motion of a oscillating diaphragm creates the negative pressure. Does that correspond to the original acoustic wave?
 

BeerBear

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Regardless of what is 'correct', there's no credible evidence I've seen that inverted audio is in any way audibly different from 'correct' polarity.
So you don't hear any difference with the samples I posted? Not even with the samples in that other thread, where others have posted blind test results?
The difference is subtle, but it's audible to me (yes, with an ABX test too).

Throwing another wrench into this discussion. The forward motion of a oscillating diaphragm creates the negative pressure. Does that correspond to the original acoustic wave?
Thanks, I'm going to read it later. It's actually one of the things I've been wondering about, but the consensus I've seen is that +/crest/peak side should be forward cone motion (and the opposite for microphone recordings).
Regardless, one way or the other has to be the correct way, doesn't it? Assuming speakers have some common characteristics, it can't just be whatever.
 

mhardy6647

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Inverting both speakers creates a time vortex where the recording gets pulled back into the media and sent to the recording studio.

/Honest!
I do appreciate explanations to seeming imponderables, as you've (all) probably noticed.

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amanieux

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That's true for everybody.
true for speakers of course as sound waves can merge/cancel before reaching our ears but on headphones or iem i prefer out of phase sound because it has a more spatious sound
 

MaxwellsEq

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true for speakers of course as sound waves can merge/cancel before reaching our ears but on headphones or iem i prefer out of phase sound because it has a more spatious sound
What! The artists, producers and mastering engineers all worked to create a solid soundstage based on both channels being in-phase. All this music was not created to sound correct when listened to out-of-phase.

One of the key aspects of this hobby is to try and recreate the sound as the artists/producers intended.
 
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amanieux

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What! The artists, producers and mastering engineers all worked to create a solid soundstage based on both channels being in-phase. All this music was not created to sound correct when listened to out-of-phase.

One of the key aspects of this hobby is to try and recreate the sound as the artists/producers intended.
try this video with headphones and see for yourself if you prefer in phase or out of phase, our brain is trying to merge 2 informations that never happens in real life
 

MaxwellsEq

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try this video with headphones and see for yourself if you prefer in phase or out of phase, our brain is trying to merge 2 informations that never happens in real life
Sorry, I'm not interested. We are supposed to listen to in-phase content with our headphones/speakers in-phase.
 

Thomas_A

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hi audio friends, if i invert speaker wires on both sides, is there any audible difference ? (tried inverting audio in audacity and i could not hear any difference) - is there any danger for speaker longevity ?
This has been discussed in another thread. Absolute polarity is audible for some persons with some signals or music.


That said, there is no way, at leat to my knowledge, to tell which one is correct. So better carry on.
 
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