Connecting speaker wire in opposite polarity

pugs · « **on:** 13 Aug 2005, 04:56 pm »

I accidentally connected my speaker wire on one speaker so the red on amp went to black on speaker. It sounded surprisingly good. I had no center image but the 3D soundfield was amazing. Is that the same thing as having dipole speakers? I wound up switching it back to normal. I like the focus of the normal configuration, but I did like the enveloping 3D effect of when it was out of phase. Does anyone do this on purpose?

avahifi · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Aug 2005, 05:40 pm »

I certainly hope not.

Frank Van Alstine

ctviggen · « **Reply #2 on:** 13 Aug 2005, 05:46 pm »

I've reversed phase on my system several times. I also have CDs where they have two songs, one in phase and one out of phase. Honestly, I can't tell the difference between the two songs. And there are two grouping of songs; I can't the difference on either set of songs. I could tell the difference, by using Avia, when I had my front speakers out of phase with my rear and center channel speakers.

Davey · « **Reply #3 on:** 13 Aug 2005, 06:28 pm »

He's talking about a left/right out of phase condition, not an absolute polarity reversal.

Davey.

Kevin P · « **Reply #4 on:** 13 Aug 2005, 06:38 pm »

Quote from: avahifi

I certainly hope not.

Frank Van Alstine

Ha!

You get a lot of cancelation in the bass-midbass area. The lack of low frequency information and the large nulls may allow you to percieve the midrange-highs more clearly where a lot of the directional cues are.

You could use a tone control or EQ to achieve the same results.

art · « **Reply #5 on:** 13 Aug 2005, 06:39 pm »

I'll second Frank's position.

Actually, taking part of one channel, feeding it out of phase with part of the other, is not something new. We did silly stuff like that in college to make "poor man's quadraphonic". (I'll let you guys do the math to figure how long ago that was..........) You see the same thing done on cheap sound cards to make your cheap PC speakers seem 10 times larger than they are.

Pat

pugs · « **Reply #6 on:** 13 Aug 2005, 07:55 pm »

Quote from: Davey

He's talking about a left/right out of phase condition, not an absolute polarity reversal.

Davey.

That's correct. Left and right are out of phase. I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to the technical stuff. I can see how a left/right out of phase configuration can sound better to some people. Of course it isn't going to sound good to those who want to re-create the music as accurately as possible, but it did sound very good in some ways.

Elso Kwak · « **Reply #7 on:** 14 Aug 2005, 07:44 am »

pugs it is a false suggestion of quality!

csero · « **Reply #8 on:** 14 Aug 2005, 07:01 pm »

Quote from: pugs

It sounded surprisingly good. I had no center image but the 3D soundfield was amazing...

Believe it or not connecting speakers out of phase creates crosstalk cancellation between the ears in several narrow bands. Crosstalk cancellation is desirable if you want real 3D imaging not just a fake stereo image.
Of course all the disadvantages of out of phase connection is true, especially in the bass, but in the mid-hf range with some music the theoretically bad out of phase connection can show a glimpse of what possible with proper crosstalk cancellation.