Invert ?


I’ve owned the Audio Research Ref 6 SE for about a year or so. One thing I don’t understand is the Invert switch. What is this used for exactly. The manual doesn’t not go into detail at all. Actually I’ve always been afraid to use it thinking I may damage something. Thanks in advance 

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Showing 2 responses by whart

There was a booklet that made the rounds several decades ago, called The Wood Effect. Who knows, it may still be in print, or available through an online book vendor. The topic was absolute phase- and a number of examples were given as I recall. But, as another member here astutely pointed out, most stuff is multi-tracked, often recorded and mixed in various studios, whether all that stuff when mixed down is in the same phase was pretty doubtful. I do remember one example being that old warhorse- Dusty's Look of Love. Was the horn blowing or sucking? (rhetorical music question, not a value judgment). It's one of those quandaries that is probably impossible to solve. 

However, in previous systems, there seemed to be only modest effect by hitting the invert switch. In my current system, I leave it non-inverted and if I hit invert, it does not sound right. I'm not sure what that means, but I just don't mess with it. 

@clio09- I did a cursory search- the booklet-- which was around 99 pages, now sells for astronomical numbers as an out of print publication. There are other things, though- listening tests, which I believe were done after the booklet, are in the AES archive-- free to members, otherwise a 30+ dollar monograph. I think there were a few articles, perhaps interviews as well, in the legacy press. Pretty easy to find on an open web search.

After I posted initially, about why my current system sounds terrible in invert mode, I realized that I had wired the system to run the midrange horn directly from my Lamm SETs(no Xover either), then jumpered the tweeters and woofers out of phase to the mid horn. The additional sub woofers are also dialed in to adjust delay/phase.

So, the system coheres as set up, but invert-- not good sounding.