Benz cartridge phase?

You sell some pretty amazing-looking products. I don't think I would buy a preamp anymore unless it had a polarity switch like yours.

Air is non-linear, but this affects air pressure with respect to altitude. As long as your altitude stays constant while the speakers are moving in and out, you should be OK :)

Absolute phase *does* make a difference though- we have had a phase switch on our preamps for just that reason, since 1989. However it can be a bit of a trick- its best heard with 2-mic recordings. Multi-mike recordings tend to be quite confused. Also, you can expect that fully 50% of all media is in phase and the other half to be out of phase. This is because there are a vast number of variables between the microphone and the cutterhead (or CD master).

We had a well-known proponent of absolute phase turn up in our room at the recent CES (T.H.E. Show). He wanted to demonstrate to us the importance of absolute phase, and that some certain percentage of CDs were out of phase. As best as I can figure, he was not expecting that we would have a phase switch in our gear. So we put on a CD, then had us flip the phase. Now I knew the recording rather well, and I felt I could hear the difference (which nevertheless surprised me a bit) but interestingly enough, *he* did not hear it. One of the people in our room knew that we also had the same recording on LP, so we played that too. It was instantly better.

None of this went the way this guy wanted! He said to me 'this test does not work if the master tape is analog' and left the room. What poppycock! Now I think absolute phase makes a difference, but IMO there is also an awful lot of nonsense surrounding this subject...

My Glider outputs the same polarity as my Shure and AT OC9ML II when connected as directed. My Denon DL103 outputs the opposite polarity when hooked up according to the manufacturer's directions.

My Krell integrated amp outputs opposite polarity to my Marantz 1060 integrated. I don't believe any polarity is "correct" and the other "inverted". An item just is what it is. It is more important to know your software and how it was mastered. My cd and lps seem evenly split going one way or the other.

In any case if you want to change polarity, then swap +&- for each channel ........... red+ green- (R). white+ blue- (L)

I contacted Benz directly and they confirmed the their cartridges are phase correct. To confirm that they sent me the connection sequence and it matches to the sequence on my SME 309.

I just got back an E-mail from Garth who said that Benz cartridges are phase correct if wired correctly in the arm.

I read the same thing over the weekend. It was mentioned in a review of the Glider which appeared in the November 2010 issue of HFNRR. I just sent an e-mail about this to Musical Surroundings, and I will let you know what their answer is.

I will go on record saying that I switched the cables at the speaker (putting them back in phase as my phono preamp inverts phase) and I did hear an improvement.

Dcblr,

Could you tell me where you read this information? Just curious.

It is possible that there may be some confusion about the cartridge phase due to the operation of the Benz Phonostage.

The Benz-Micro Lukaschek PP-1 T9 Phonostage does invert polarity due to reduced internal component usage and design choices. When using the PP-1 T9 users can then reverse the polarity/phase at the cartridge by swaping the leads to compensate.

Dre

One fly in the ointment here. Even if your system maintains correct polarity, recorded media doesn't. Many vinyl LPs and even some CDs are recorded in inverted polarity. Mostly it's the older LPs, but I've had some recent issues that were inverted. It's nice to be able to invert polarity with a remote, ;~) like I can with my phono pre. For CDs, if you have them archived on a hard drive a program like Pure Music will invert polarity for you if you tell it to in the comment box of the iTunes info file. Nice to have the automation there.

It's interesting why this business with polarity makes a difference. Air is a non-linear medium. Just look at the adibatic pressure/volume curves for air. The result is that the sound wave is distorted asymetrically. The peaks are compressed and the troughs are elongated if I remember correctly. This results in even order harmonic distortion, mostly 2nd order. Kind of like what a SET amp does. Inverting this will turn things around, elongated peaks and compressed troughs. So the difference.

Never heard of such a thing with the Benz. As others have mentioned, only if you wire it wrong in the head shell. If your phono or line stage preamp has a polarity switch, experiment with that to see if you notice a change, for the better. I noticed that on some music the playback sounds very flat and little lifeless, nothing like switching the phase on the preamp to take care of that. You will notice out of phase music by this certain flatness and lack of dynamic expression. Once the phase is correct, all harmony in the music life will ve restored. Good luck.

Audioquest4life

Thanks for the good advice, I will give it a try. If I end up needing to swap the cartridge leads which colours do I change?

Do you know if any other component in your system inverts polarity? If you have another one (an even number) do nothing as two negatives make a positive.

You should do what I do... listen to your favorite recordings both ways and see which way sounds better and more natural to you. You can do this simply by reversing the respective positive and negative speaker leads for each channel.

You can then leave the leads at the speaker the way it sounds best. However if you also have a CD player or other source in the system that doesn't invert then you need to invert the phono leads at the cartridge. Then you can leave the speaker leads in normal polarity for CD.

Only if you wire them wrong at the headshell

I have just read that Benz cartridges, ( I have a Ruby 3H), have inverted phase. Does anyone know if that is the case and if so which leads have to be changed?