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Reversing Polarity -- Voodoo or Easy Tweak?

In a recent thread I noticed a comment about reversing polarity of speaker wires on both speakers which sparked one of my earliest audiophile memories.

On the liner or cover notes of Dave Grusin: Discovered Again on direct to disc vinyl, circa 1977, it too recommended reversing the polarity on BOTH speakers, for best sound.

Although my first system was a 25 WPC Technics receiver with Infinity Qa's and lousy speaker wire, I still remember getting very enthusiastic about reversing the polarity and wondering if it did anything.

Can anyone explain this and/or recommend if this is even worth the experiment?
cwlondon
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audiodir
1 posts
 
Phil Spector introduced his "wall of sound" back in the 50's. Basically he had the vocalists in correct phase and the backing instruments out ophase. What this did was to make the intruments sound 'big' as the out of phase recording smears the the fine detail and creates a bigger subjective image. The voices remain in sharp focus however, and give the overall tune a nice presence.
In the film commentary of the Commitments, Alan Parker does the same thing. In order to showcase the vocalists he plays back the backing instruments out of phase, while keeping the voice in correct phase.
In the case of the Sheffield labs disc. I think they just screwed up....

Stu
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fatparrot
1,314 posts
 
Audiodir, are you sure of the reversed polarity in Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound"? I was told that the effect was done by cramming everyone into a way too small studio. The instruments and vocals were not isolated to the individual mics, but bled into surrounding mics. Then he did his final mix down on a pair of 6" x 9" car speakers. Not much for high fidelity, but a kick ass mix for the AM mono car radios and cheap ass dinky transistor radios of the day. But I never remember anything about a polarity reverse.

BTW, if you want to hear how bad the "Wall of Sound" plays on an audiophile system, listen to the Ramones song "Rock 'n' Roll High School" produced by Spector using his W.O.S. technique.
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