High resolution digital is dead. The best DAC's killed it.

Jitter, good catch! If speaker drivers are not wired in the same Polarity that would be Big Gnus. 🐂 🐂 🐂 You can hear it right away, I mean, if you can hear. Why would anyone do that intentionally? If it doesn’t make sense it’s not true. JBL did have a woofer wired out of Polarity on some models for quite a while, dunno why. There’s an easy test with a battery across the driver terminals to ensure all drivers are in the same Polarity. Highly recommended. 

Most likely the effect is system dependent. So your results are not surprising, glubson.

“I'm just saying that if the perceived quality of audio reproduction could be improved so dramatically by inverting the polarity of playback it would be a common feature.”

Nobody said the sound is improved dramatically. Give me a break. It’s more like a subtle but powerful difference at best. It depends on the recording and the system and the listeners skill at hearing. Why would it be a common feature? The industry doesn’t believe in Polarity, power cords, fuses or wire directionality. So what else is new?

Really. Who can hear anything? 

Jitter, behave! No more premature jocularity.

That’s exactly what I’ve been saying in almost every single Polarity post the past few years. Hel-loo! But how do you know whether your system is in correct Absolute Polarity? Even if it’s 50/50 there’s no use crying about it, no matter what Absolute Polarity your system is in.

Of course Mercury Living Presence classical CDs were produced by entirely different people than whoever produced the pop stuff. So the jury is still out on those Golden Age classical CDs from the 90s as to their Polarity. The jury is still out on the RCA Living Stereo CDs from the same time period, which frankly don’t sound that great to me. As to their Absolute Polarity, who the hell knows? As for Deutsche Grammophon I would believe that entire label is OOP. By the way when I refer to Absolute Polarity I’m referring to the case where the recording is 180 degrees from the correct Absolute Polarity. 

This just in! From Clark Johnsen, author of the book on Absolute Polarity, The Wood Effect.

From Clark’s Diary over on Positive Feedback from some time in cyberspace,

Masked by random combination with other distortions in the music reproduction chain, an unsuspected major contributor has lain hidden: Aural sensitivity to "phase inversion", the Wood effect.

Musical instruments normally create compression waves in their attack transients. Electronics, however, often invert that natural, positive polarity to negative, unnatural rarefaction as emitted from loudspeakers, thus diminishing physical and aesthetic impact. The term Absolute Polarity uniquely describes the correct arrival to the ear of acoustic wavefronts from loudspeakers, with respect to actual musical instruments.

Wrong polarity, when isolated, is obvious to almost everyone. Its present neglect results primarily from habitual disregard for linear phase response in loudspeakers, due largely to the erroneous auditory theory of Helmholtz.

While it’s somewhat interesting that instruments can sometimes be in different polarities on the same track and that sometimes tracks can be in different polarities on the same recording what is most important is whether the recording’s Absolute Polarity is Correct or Inverted. Especially if it’s the entire label that’s Inverted! Hel-loo!

There isn’t much you can do about the former cases, since those errors were made during the recording session. However, the latter case of *Absolute Polarity* of a CD being right or wrong relative to a playback system that has been determined to be in correct Absolute Polarity (using a test CD). Either a Polarity switch or the patience to change + and - cables would work. The alternative way would be to make the playback system’s *Absolute Polarity* Inverted. Then, presumably at least according to George Louis, most CDs will sound correct Polarity wise.

Let me cut to the chase. Here’s an excerpt from George Louis’ Polarity List that illustrates just how many cherished audiophile CDs AND AUDIOPHILE LABELS are in Reverse Polarity. Check it out. I’m not saying yea or nay.

R Reverse Polarity
N Non Inverting Polarity

1. Analogue Productions R
2. Analogue Productions – FI The Magazine of Music & Sound R
3. Antiles R
4. Archiv Produktion R
5. Ariola – Greenhouse Effect Plan B R
6. ASTREE AUVIDIS R
7. ATCO RECORDS – Bobby Darin – This is Darin R
8. ATLANTIC JAZZ – Cyrus Chestnut – The Dark Before the Dawn – R
9. AudioQuest – Robert Lucas – Layaway R
10. Audiostas ummy-Head-Recording (binaural) R
11. BEAST RETRO Concert Friday the 13th Cook County Jail R
12. Behringer A500 amplifier single ended RCA input R it’s balanced XLR input is non-inverting N
13. Big Cat Records – Mary Coughlan – After the Fall R
14. BIS R
15. BLACK LION – Cliff Jackson – Carolina Shout R
16. Blix Street Records R
17. Blue Note N
18. BLUE NOTE Music from EMI* – Patricia Barber – Live A Forthight in France R
19. BRC-JAM – Todd Coolman Trio – Tomorrows R
20. BROWNSTONE RECORDINGS – HARRY SKOLER – Conversations In The Languate Of Jazz R
21. Burmester – Art for the Ear – Volume II & III R
22. Café RECORDS –Moro – Pieces of And A collection of Romantic Music for Cuitar R
23. CAMELEON/BEACHWOOD RECORDS – Laurence Juber – Solo Flight R
24. Capri Records Ltd, NU – Drifting Timelessly R
25. Cascavelle – Duo De Harpes R
26. CBS Records (Associated) Hubert Laws: The Rite of Spring – R
27. Cedille Records R
28. CEMA SPECIAL PRODUCTS – 10 BEST SERIES – Peggy Lee – Fever & Other Hits R
29. Chesky R
30. Clarity Recordings R
31. Collectables

And,

1. London N
2. M*A R
3. M*A Recordings – Bruce Stark, piano – Dream song R
4. MAD-KAT Records – Kitty Margolis – Live at The Jazz Workshop R
5. Mapleshade N
6. Mark Levinson – Red Rose Music-– Volume one R
7. Maxell Studio Series headphones R
8. MCA GRP – Rob Wasserman (etc.) – Trios R
9. MCA Zebra* – David Grisman Acousticity R
10. Mercury Living Presence R
11. Mercury R
12. MHS Musical Herritage Society N
13. Milestone –The Kenny Drew, Jr. Trio – Winter Flower R
14. MOBILE FIDELITY MFSL (Polydor original R) – Eric Clapton Slowhand R
15. MOBILE FIDELITY SOUND LAB ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING ULTRA DISC UHR GAIN 2 –(hybrid SACD) Patricia Baber – Café Blue R
16. MOBILE FIDELITY SOUND LAB ULTRA DISC II (original Verve – R) – Getz/Gilberto R
17. MOBILE FIDELITY ULTRA DISC II SAMPLER – (multiple original CDs) MP
18. Mode 26 (Records) R
19. MOTOWN – Diana Ross – Lady Sings the Blues R
20. MSFL Original Master Recording – Jim Hall – Concierto R
21. Music from BMI*- BLUE NOTE – Patricia Barber – Live a Fortnight in France R
22. MuSick – Evan foster – Instrumentals R
23. N Coded Music N
24. Naim – Charlie Haden & John Taylor R
25. Nakamichi Bridiging Adaptor BA-100 N
26. Narada R
27. Narada Collection Series R
28. Nature Recordings R
29. NAXOS R
30. NEC CD-730, CD-830D CD players N
31. NEW WORLD RECORDS R
32. Nimbus Records English Stsring Orchestra – Mendelssohn Complete String symphonies R
33. Nonesuch R
34. Nonesuch – Mandy Patnkin – Oscar & Steve R
35. NOVUS (BMG RCA) – Marcus Roberts – The Truth s Spoken Here R
36. Oppo BDP-95 CD, DVD, SACD, DVD-A, Blu-ray player R
37. Opus 3 R
38. Opus 3 – Depth of Image Test Record 1 R
39. Pablo N
40. Philips R
41. Philips digital Classics – Pepe romero – Noches de Espana R
42. PIERRE VERANY – Mamba Percussions R
43. POINT GEMA – Pasha – Christmas Music - Christmas Carols R
44. Polydor – Dick Annegarn R
45. Premonition Records – Patricia Barber – Café Blue (CD) R
46. Private Music- Leo Kottke – Regards From Chuck Pink R
47. Proprius R
48. Proprius – Jazz at the Pawnshop R
49. Proprius – Contate Domino R
50. PS Audio – DAC Link III R
51. PS Audio – PerfectWave DAC N
52. R ACCORD Duke Ellington – PLUS TIME 2 Great Concerts R
53. RCA BIEM/GEMA Made in the EU - Elvis Presley Such A Night N
54. RCA BIEM/GEMA Made in the EU - Elvis Presley Such A Night R both 156 and 157 have the same catalog and matrix numbers and yet are the opposite relative polarity which is something that I’m trying to understand.
55. RCA RED SEAL – Charles Munch BSO – Debussy – La Mer R
56. RCAVictor R
57. RCAVictor, The Chieftains – Tears of Stone R
58. RealTime Records – Real Hot Jazz R
59. Rearward/Schema N
60. Red House Records R
61. Reference Records R
62. Reprise N
63. Reprise – Joni Mitchell – Blue N
64. Rhino R
65. River North Records N

“On a purely random basis that means that digital media and files are heard in the wrong polarity approximately 85% of the time and either 92% wrong or correct when audio systems are set to a fixed playback polarity.”

>>>>>That’s the second time you wrote that. Can you explain what you mean by that? It kind of doesn’t make sense. And why would analog be correct Polarity 99% of the time yet digital be incorrect Polarity most of the time.... or am I misinterpreting your statements?

Wishful thinking, Georgie Boy. I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. I can hear a mouse fart at 20 yards. It’s so obvious. You must be deaf. Or superstitious, probably the latter.

...and you know something’s happening but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? 😳

georgehifi4,837 posts02-03-2019 1:47pm

If you could hear what I’ve heard with my ears.

You say you can hear a difference in the direction of an ac mains fuse, you hear nothing!

>>>>>You get an F in directionality. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Audioquest controls directionality in their higher end power cords for a reason. And I don’t mean marketing. You agree power cords are part of an AC circuit, yes?

velveteen1 posts02-02-2019 8:24pmI love my digital front end, with r2r technology! I couldn't imagine my redbook CDs sounding any better than they do now.......

Mark Levinson No 31.5
Mark Levinson No 30.6

It’s kind of hard to image what you haven’t heard. If you could hear what I’ve heard with my ears.

Blame it on The Rolling Stones.