How to reverse phase on a cartridge?

Some of you guys are confused about phase. There are two things:
- out of phase (left adn right) and
- inverted phase

If left and right are reversed on one side, it causes an out of phase condition. One speaker is sucking-in while the the other is pushing out. THAT is the one that confuses image, etc.
And that is not what this post is about.

Inverted phase causes both speakers to suck in before pushing out. Stereo left and right are correct, so centre image has nothing to do with it. Inverted phase isn't as easy to hear, but with practice you can spot it fairly easily. The whole sound stage is recessed to the rear; a vocalist will sound like he/she is behind the speakers instead of out front. The performance doesn't jump out at you like it should and the soundstage will sound compressed between the speakers instead of going sideways outside the speakers.

OK?

My bad Brf, you are correct. I should have read the post with my glasses on. ;)

On top of everything else, who is to say what is "correct" phase? Only the listener who can perceive a difference when phase is shifted by 180 degrees at all frequencies, by any of the maneuvers desribed above. Yet, as far as I know, there was no particular phase orthodoxy observed in any recording studio or in LP or CD production. I have read that even on any one LP, the phase can differ from one cut to the next. Further, crossovers and other unavoidable elements in the electronic pathway also alter phase in a frequency-specific manner. Further, further, acoustic phase is altered by room reflections. And finally, you say your phono stage sounds "fine". With all that taken into account, I would say "fuhgeddaboudit". Surely, as an audiophile, you can find something else to fret about. I know I can.

is out of phase noticeable?

Yes it can be. The sound will appear to come from no specific location i.e. no defined centre image etc.

Please note that not all source material is recorded with the same phase, therefore, it becomes a bit of a crap shoot.

Jmcgrogan2, please note that the only piece of equipment that inverts phase is the OP's standalone phono pre-amp, therefore, the OP only option is to switch the cartridge lead without affecting other sources in his system.

OK thanks for that. I should have mentioned that it is a phono preamp only.
I don't hear anything odd, or thin sounding, so perhaps that indicates that all is OK.

Brf is correct, however, in most cases you will be better off changing the polarity on the speaker cable leads, switch black with red. The reason for this is that you may be running other sources through your Joule Electra preamp that do NOT invert polarity, CDP, MS, Tuner, etc.

That said, you need to know how your gear is wired. For example, my preamp inverts polarity, however, my CDP also inverts polarity. So I just wired my cartridge out of phase as Brf describes, and now my preamp inverts both CDP and phono back to absolute phase, so I don't need to switch my speaker cable leads.

However, if my CDP was NON-iverting, as most are, I would not invert my cartridge wiring, I would invert the speaker cable leads.

Does this make sense, or just add to the confusion?

Thanks BRF. Is out of phase quite noticable? It certainly is very noticable on things like electric guitar pickups.

Connect the tonearm leads to the cartridge pins as follows:

Left Channel
blue to white
white to blue

Right Channel
green to red
red to green

Make sure that your phono pre is the ONLY component that reverses phase.