I think adding absolute polarity test might be a good thing to add to the tests for future devices, so users can decide for themselves if it matters....
fwiw
we could debate adnauseam the audibility of absolute polarity where my only concern is sample/waveform integrity at the output... we dont have the same acoustic space, amps, speakers etc, so anything we hear can not necessarily be replicated or shared without recordings.
if the bits say this is a positive edge leading waveform, I want the DAC to do that, not the inverse, doesnt matter to me if I can hear it or not. My job requires this, I don't think that's too much to ask...
inverted polarity at the oututs is a legacy of tube amps and transformer design where by their nature signals would be inverted and you neeeded to add an aditional unity gain stage to correct for this (so for the sake of cost and noise it wasn't done as often) when we entered the trasistor and IC era absolute polarity in audio could be maintained cheaply and relitively noise free not to mention transistors dont invert the signal by default as do tube amp designs. Yes some equipment inverts the signal polarity but not because it doesn't matter, maily due to limitations of the desin, cost or noise consideratios of the era.
So, absolute polarity in my opinion is not simply a nice to have, but should always be the default result objective to strive for in a modern design... mistakes in design happen but let's not suggest signal integrty is not important and doesn't matter... it does matter even if you cannot hear it, a positive leading edge is a positive leading edge.
fwiw
we could debate adnauseam the audibility of absolute polarity where my only concern is sample/waveform integrity at the output... we dont have the same acoustic space, amps, speakers etc, so anything we hear can not necessarily be replicated or shared without recordings.
if the bits say this is a positive edge leading waveform, I want the DAC to do that, not the inverse, doesnt matter to me if I can hear it or not. My job requires this, I don't think that's too much to ask...
inverted polarity at the oututs is a legacy of tube amps and transformer design where by their nature signals would be inverted and you neeeded to add an aditional unity gain stage to correct for this (so for the sake of cost and noise it wasn't done as often) when we entered the trasistor and IC era absolute polarity in audio could be maintained cheaply and relitively noise free not to mention transistors dont invert the signal by default as do tube amp designs. Yes some equipment inverts the signal polarity but not because it doesn't matter, maily due to limitations of the desin, cost or noise consideratios of the era.
So, absolute polarity in my opinion is not simply a nice to have, but should always be the default result objective to strive for in a modern design... mistakes in design happen but let's not suggest signal integrty is not important and doesn't matter... it does matter even if you cannot hear it, a positive leading edge is a positive leading edge.
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