Second order harmonics are like a butter drizzle. Who can resist it and why should they?
I read an article about a second order harmonics generator by Nelson Pass after i built his Korg Nutube preamp from diyaudio. In the article he explains very clearly how phase matters when it comes to 2nd order harmonics.
I’ve been listening to the the preamp all day and I really like it but i wanted to see how it would sound if i flipped the phase. I listened to a handful of songs and quickly noticed i was not nearly as relaxed I was before. I could hear some subtle differences in the music but i was definitely much more focused on how anxious i was all of sudden. I powered down my amp and rolled the banana plugs back and listened to the last two songs again. It made a difference almost immediately, i calmed back down and it almost felt like the music slowed down a bit. There’s certainly a chance this is all placebo effect but i figured it was worth writing this up to see if others have had experiences like this. I couldn’t find anything on
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/2nd-order-harmonics-phase-and-anxiety.1054032/