Stereophile test CD2 In/Out of Phase test:question

Tbg..."Mismark"? JBL probably thinks they are right and the world is wrong. And this is ALL JBL drivers not just the ones I use (according to what I read). It is purely arbitrary anyway, and as Sean says you just connect wires accordingly.

Tbg...Unless it is a JBL driver, which goes the opposite way.

Tbg... JBL LF drivers are also phased backwards from the rest of the world. I actually experienced this when wiring up some 15" JBL subwoofers together with some 12" subwoofer drivers of a different brand, and thought that I had screwed up the wiring at the driver inside the enclosure. They went opposite ways. Subsequently I read about it.

Tbg...Why do Yanks drive on the right side and Brits on the left? Here is a reasoned (non-arbitrary answer).

1...In England, when people got around on horseback, it was customary, when meeting a traveler coming the other way to draw your sword. Holding the sword up in your right hand, you would pass the other traveler to the left, so that your sword was between you and him. So the Brits drive on the left.

2...In America, with people traveling longer distances, stage coaches were common, and it was usual for a man to ride one of the front horses. When you mount a horse you do it from the left side. This goes back to when people wore swords, and the scabard was on the left so that a right-handed person could easily draw the sword. (The scabard would get in the way if you tried to mount the horse from the right, and the horse wouldn't like it either). Therefore, the stage coach horse rider was on the left front horse. Now, when you met another stage coach on a narrow road you would steer to the right so that the two guys on the horses could best judge the clearance as the coaches passed.

Can you think of any logical reason why a positive voltage should push the cone out, rather than in? (Be creative).

Tbg...France being screwed up needs no explanation. Australia is geographically inverted, so that explains them.

By the way one could take issue with your presumption that the initial pressure disturbance is positive. How about a gong, or less obviously a drum. (Any bipole source). The initial pressure disturbance polarity will depend on where the listener is located relative to the source.

Many years ago I traveled through the Suez canal, and I observed that the initial water disturbance (wave) due to the moving ship, as measured by water movement at the edge of the canal was down. This is counterintuitive. Although I was an Engineer for four decades I never quite figured out this phenomena that I observed when I was about eleven years old.

Herman...see http://www.holistic-resonance.com/index2.html

I had this posted by mistake on another thread. Here it is where it belongs.

I used the example of the bow wave of a ship being "out of phase". In the news we have another example. When there is a Tsunami the initial effect is that the ocean retreats, leaving fish flopping around on what used to be the bottom of the sea.

I suspect that the "near field" sound wave polarity is what we would expect from the cone motion, but that as the distrubance propogates through the air it is modified. I wonder if anyone has done any research on the modification of sonic waveform as a function of propogation distance through air.

The effect I suggest perhaps explains the ambiguity that exists regarding the importance of "absolute polarity". And it suggests that the audibility of "absolute polarity" would best be evaluated using headphones.