Smoother bass by running woofer out of phase?

What nags me is whether or not this is the way to solve the problem. I got this idea from owning a Rel sub where they suggest in hooking up the sub out of phase which may reduce bass boom.

Of course it is not correct - you are changing the impulse response significantly. This may be why it sounds more spacious...probably more laid back - less distinct on transients or muddy. The inteference pattern that you create will have a null down the center line of the room (if it is symmetric). A better solution would be tone control or PARC or placement further out into the room. Electrostatics are designed to be placed well out in to a room (less bass reinforcement) and therefore it seems likely that ML's will bass heavy if placed up against a wall.

The other issue I did not mention will be cancellation or a dip in the crossover region on the one speaker that is wired out of phase.

We cannot hear less than 1 cycle at very low frequencies, and by the time 1 cycle has reached us enough time has elaped that we're past the direct sound and into the reverberant sound

I agree fully with that.

I guess what sounds best to your own ears is the right thing to do...

If you are listening to a bass guitar or double bass then I agree that phase has very little to do with the way the notes sound.

However the fact that the bass sounds more spacious with one speaker woofer wired incorrectly seems to me to imply that there is enough energy in the upper bass (perhaps above 80 Hz) to give some rough directional information to the ears - surely this must affect presentation or the way transients sound - like a Kick drum where the slap comes at 4 or 5 Khz and bottom at 60 to 80 HZ?. By this I mean coudl it change the perceotion of fast bass versus slow bass.

I would dig out the Sheffield Labs Drum test Track 1 and check to see which sounds better/more realistic (disregarding the overly heavy bass presentation by using a tone control for example). Just a thought....

Here is and example of the funky relationship between bass mid and treble and the way we perceive instruments

The jargon is an interesting mix of descriptive words to describe how something sounds coupled with the frequencies that are driving that sound. I would be concerned with changing teh way thing sound through incorrect phase....it may not sound that much wrong but it may sound different.