S-Man;205455 Wrote: > > I think some or you are being unfair on the TNT reviewer... > I have just had a good lsiten to V15 versus V81 and can hear a > noticeable difference (although the different volume profiles used > makes a direct comparison rather tricky). HOWEVER IMHO the difference > is solely due to the change of absolute phase - I prefer V15 with the > speaker leads connected normally and V81 with the leads reversed. > Patrick, please tell me the SB+ has an inverting output?? > Of course it's quite possible some CDs are recorded with inverted > absolute phase to further complicate the issue. >
OK, so the differences between the SB+ and the stock SB are about as large as the difference inverting the phase makes. Very interesting to know :-). Phil Leigh;205490 Wrote: > It's not possible to hear absolute phase - because it's not there to > hear. Why does everyone assume that a CD is in "correct phase" in the > first place? Aaaaaargh..... > I agree with you that there can not possibly be a "correct" polarity setting for all CDs, or even for all tracks on a given CD, and sometimes even for all instruments on a given track on a given CD. That seemed to be what the poster was claiming, and as you point out it's nonsensical. BUT it is not true that polarity inversion is never *audible*, and it might possible be that on certain tracks/CDs someone could *prefer* a particular choice - it wouldn't be the correct choice in any sense, but they might happen to prefer it. In fact it's simple to generate test tones for which polarity inversion is audible (polarity inversion changes the perceived pitch). There is also solid evidence that polarity inversion is audible on certain acoustic instruments playing a tone, under absolutely ideal listening conditions. Personally I doubt (and there is no evidence as far as I know) that it's ever audible for music, but given the above it's not impossible. I think we should also bear in mind that there are at least two ways polarity might be audible. First, we need an asymmetric signal, but basically all acoustic sounds are. Then we need something that reacts to the signal in a way which is asymmetric. That can be the human ear, or something in the playback chain, or both. Now I think we know (using test tones) that the ear does react asymmetrically. But audio systems that distort may add significantly to this effect by increasing the level of asymmetry. Some claim polarity is easier to hear using LPs - that's likely to be a fantasy, but if not it might be because a record player will almost certainly distort asymmetrically (needle moving up is quite unlikely to be equivalent to needle moving down). It may also be that tube amps add to the effect. -- opaqueice ------------------------------------------------------------------------ opaqueice's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4234 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=35274 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
