2. analog
  3. 1202244542

Cartridge polarity?

Yesterday I was placing my ZYX cart on another headshell. Somehow I reversed the red/green wires. The sound changed in these ways: separation increased substantially, vocals wandered more to one side and when they were centered, they were less focused, bass decreased in impact but soundstaging increased phenomenally especially depth-wise. When I re-connected the wires correctly, the sound was back to normal. Is there a polarity issue? Should the wires be reversed? If I reverse the wires and the soundstage increase stays along with appropriately centered vocals, will it cause a problem with my system?

The system:
Mitsubishi LT-30
Zyx R100H
Sansui (upgraded, new caps etc) AU-D11 integrated
Kirksaeter 220 speakers
All Vampire CCC wire

Thanks all.
mt10425

Showing 3 responses by mt10425

mt10425 OP
1,138 posts
 
Thanks Bob. I understand both sides being connected in phase. If I connect both sides out-of-phase, would I still get the enormous soundstage, would the bass return and would there be any damaging effects?
mt10425 OP
1,138 posts
 
Thanks Casey. The plus and minus would be reversed not left and right.
mt10425 OP
1,138 posts
 
Lewm & Eldartford-Thanks much. The sound was sooo different than I'm used to that the jury's still out but, at least, I've got info to work with.
More to discover