AC polarisation. Does it matter?

I have heard of this before - a guy who posted here about 4 years ago got a McIntosh amp that he felt sounded bad. He tried and tried to figure out what the incompatibility issue was only to find out that the amp was hooked up out of phase due to the non-stock power cord. he used a correct-polarity cord and the sound improved greatly - or so he says. You can experiment and determine the exact answer for yourself. Let us know what you come up with.

Yes Polarity is very important. If incorrect it can effect the sonics of equipment. Hi-End manufactures check and make sure the primary polarity of the power transformer is correct. Check the archives for the proper method to check for proper AC plorarity.
Incorrect AC polarity can also can cause hum in a system connected by ICs.
On a safety matter the fusing inside the equipment would be on the other end of the power transformer primary winding. In other words instead of the fuse protection on the incoming hot conductor it would be connected on the neutral, the grounded conductor.

The AC polarity could also be off on the wall plug. No reason to believe the crew that installed the outlets in the house got all the wires put on the plugs the right way. They work very fast.

You can buy a polarity checker at most hardware stores. Well worth it for a small price.

Conrad Johnson use to put 2 prong AC plugs on some of their preamps, so you could flip the cord and desire which ways sounds best to you.

As most of my wires(Electraglides) are reversed except for the wires to the cdp and tuner should I reverse the polarity at the wall plug? That would reverse to proper polarisatiom the Hydra but then the amp and preamp would be reversed. The way I have it now the
plug from the wall is Reversed .The Electraglides in my system are all reversed in that the positive and neutral prongs switch at the iec. So I have a reversed cable to my Hydra with reversed cables from Hydra to amp and preamp which I imagine wouild be proper polarised as the hydra is switched and then it is switched back from the reversed cords from the hydra. The cords from the Hydra to my CDP and ny tuner are correctly wired so they would be reversed. What would be best for me to do. I could reverse the wall plug and the CDP and tuner would be correct but the amp and preamp would be reversed and vise versa.

(The AC polarity could also be off on the wall plug. No reason to believe the crew that installed the outlets in the house got all the wires put on the plugs the right way. They work very fast.)

They had better get the polarity correct or it can cause very severe problems with certain components. A cable box for instance will have 110 volts on it's coax center conductor if the recepticle is wired backwards.

I looked at your system and I don't think quality control is a problem with Shunyatas and Electraglides unless they make an export version with reverse polarity... I don't know.

Did you use a continuity tester to confirm this? Sorry if this seems painfully obvious, but the two ends match with respect to shape - flat on top and ground on bottom with the left/right terminals matching. Use a continuity tester on a prong/receptacle pair. If they are reversed, I certainly would not use them in my equipment.

For reasons stated above, reverse polarity is an issue and it's not minor. Usually, polarity is not an issue for pure resistive loads such as light bulbs.

With the reversed cord going to my hydra and reversed cords from my hydra to the amp and preamp does it not balance out assumnming the house is wired properly? As for the CDP and tuner they would be reversed because their cords are properly wired .Which would be worse, reversed sources or reversed amps?

Rwwear

It is unfortunitely a well documented fact that plugs get wired backwards sometimes. That is the cause of some electrical house fires when certain critical equipment gets plugged in. Can you say POP !!!

When I bought my current house, the inspector I hired found three light switches wired wrong.

In my old house I had problems with the AC/heat pump. It would blow the breaker once a month. The repair person I hired found that the control box for the heating system was wired wrong by whoever installed it.

The problem could be there for years and never be found. Most things don't need the correct polarity (anything with a 2 prong plug). Even grounded plugs don't necessarily need the correct polarity.

Some audio power cord makers do make reverse polarity power cords. They do have their uses for altering the sound. A friend made his subwoofer more lean and tight with a reverse cord.

>"With the reversed cord going to my hydra and reversed cords from my hydra to the amp and preamp does it not balance out assumnming the house is wired properly? As for the CDP and tuner they would be reversed because their cords are properly wired .Which would be worse, reversed sources or reversed amps?"<
>>>>>>>

What a fri*ken mess. How did you ever end up with these power cords?

If you have a multi-meter you can check the polarity at the wall outlet. Set the meter to AC volts insert one test lead probe in the ground hole. Insert the other test lead probe in the smaller of the two staight slot holes. If the polarity is correct the meter will read around 115 to 120V, depending on what your house voltage is.

Follow Gs556 advice and do a continuity check to make sure the cords are as you have described. Are these cords home made? Can you rewire one end of the affected cords?

I should point out that some devices use polarized plugs for safty reasons and if reversed could cause shocks, fires or damaged equipment. One such episode happened to me with the afore mentioned cable box where an electrician had wired the recepticle for an audio video system backwards. When I attempted to connect the cable box, the coax arced when I touched it to the connector and burned out the box. It could have wiped out the whole system which consisted of a very expensive plasma TV. I f a device you have has a polarized plug, I would not reverse it unless authorized by the manufacturer.

You need to be sure all the outlets are wired correctly; do not reverse wiring in the outlets to correct for downsteam issues with your cables/gear.

Once you are sure about the outlets, you can work on the rest to get them all straighted out. My .02 is that you would want "polarity" to be the same on all gear.

As far as checking the wiring, one of the plug-in testers from a hardware store (~$5.00) is all you need.