Crossing Left and Right Speakers

I just experienced this the other day.  I have a recording for Audiogon made by the Chesky label (available from HD tracks) that has some really good imaging effects.  On the St Louis Blues cut, there are numerous instruments that appear either to the left or the right of the loudspeakers.  I had changed some gear around in my system and unintentionally switched the channels.  I knew immediately something was off - the instruments were still outside the loudspeakers (but on the wrong side), but to your point what I noticed that surprised me was that there was nothing in the center of the stage, only on the outsides.  There’s another track where a flute travels laterally around the soundstage, from left to right and back again.  In this case I couldn’t track it.  My speakers were wired in phase.  I suspect on a lot of recordings, other than switching left and right within the soundstage, there will not be a huge impact otherwise.  But I guess some recordings are different?  Not sure why or how.

Ok, you guys had me questioning what I thought I had heard recently on this Chesky recording for Audiogon.  Keep in mind when I heard this I was not listening for anything.  I just noticed something sounded wrong, figured out what it was, and switched it back.  FWIW I went back and looked at the liner notes and, interestingly, this recording is binaural. Not sure that makes a big difference or not.  Anyway, I went back to listen again.  The cut I thought had no center image was correct - because it in fact has no information in the center for the first couple minutes.  It had been a long time since I listened to the recording and at that point I was just trying to figure out what was sounding wrong.  I had turned it off before I got to the part where the flute moves from right to center.  Now, the other cut (St. Louis Blues) still sounds slightly strange when the left and right sides are reversed, but I’d be hard pressed to identify exactly what was going on with that one.  It doesn’t sound completely (or only) like a simple reversal of left and right.  The center image seems less populated than when the right and left sides are wired correctly.  My room is not symmetrical either (right side is closer to a boundary) so that could contribute to it…. Anyway, just wanted to set the record straight!