Phase inverting problem

Tbg - dunno how many or which players invert polarity. I dunno why either, but I don't think they do it on purpose. Maybe they are like recording engineers and just donl;t think about it.

There are three reasons why a consumer audio product would invert phase:

1. Ambiguous or no standardization on hookup of balanced interconnections (i.e. the XLR pinout conventions that Atmasphere mentioned)

2. Error in design, manufacturing, or nomenclature

3. Preference for circuit design topologies/combinations for which inversion is a side-effect. An example would be a two-tube line preamp where the first stage is a plate-loaded voltage amp, and the second is a cathode follower . . . the signal will come out inverted, unless another stage is added to flip it back around. These types of circuit designs are increasingly eccentric and anachronistic in modern equipment . . . and pretty unusual even in the field of enthusiast audio where eccentricity and anachronism is widely respected.

Reason #3 is especially uncommon in CD players and DACs, given that the overwhelming majority of high-quality DAC chips have balanced current outputs and/or on-chip signal inversion capability . . . meaning that the designer can just as easily preserve signal polarity regardless of the design of the output stage. That's why I used a CD played from a Pro Tools recording/mastering process as my "good bet" example.

Recording engineers are seldom the reason for high compression on recordings. It is usually the producer or artists that want there products to sound the loudest. Since the engineer is payed by the artist or producer he does what he is asked even though he hates it.

I have a Manley Steelhead which I run full tilt into a Lightspeed Attenuator and then into a pair of mono blocks.
I assume everything is phase correct.
Cd is run directly into the LSA and to the amps.
To my ears the cd sound is much fuller,which bothers me, because the lp sound is thinner by comparison.
I am thinking there maybe a phase issue with the phono stage added to the mix.My memory is going, but I seem to remember somewhere in the past that when you have 3 stages, it puts the system out of phase and you need to switch at the speakers.In my case I will try reversing the leads on my cartridge as it is less full and perhaps out of phase.
Any thoughts on this?

Lacee- I'm not able to answer your technical question about whether the
number of stages causes some sort of phase inversion, but I can tell you,
based on my experience running a Steelhead for a number of years that:
1. It sounds better if power is always on to the power supply and you are
simply switching off the active circuits using the standby switch on the main
unit;
2. I preferred the sound of the unit through a separate active line stage,
rather than running it with its own buffered volume control. Whether that's
directly comparable to what you are doing by running the Steelhead fixed
outputs into a passive line stage, I dunno, but I offer it for what it's worth.
The unit sounded very 'clear' but a bit threadbare running it on its own
(without the addition of the separate line stage, which added more meat to
the bones-
call it 'warmth,' 'richness' or 'euphonic coloration,' it had a less 'forced' more
relaxed sound). At the time i was running a Lamm L2 which may have been
very complementary to the Steelhead, b/c the Lamm had a very lucid, if
somewhat 'dark' sound and rolled off a bit at the frequency extremes.
3. Using Lyra Titan i and later Airtight PC1, I preferred the sound through
the MM inputs run at 47k. The MC inputs sounded uneven across the
spectrum. I did fiddle with the loading and other settings, but that's where I
came out.
4. I think the gain setting on the unit was at 55.
5. I found that tube rolling made a pretty significant difference- my
preference being the NOS Tele equivalents and running other NOS for the
7044 slots. On that note, it may be worth changing out the tubes to see
what difference it makes.
I did a fair amount of fooling around with the unit when I owned it- and I
think that summarizes where I came out.

Lacee, if you are running a preamp already you certainly don't need the passive volume control after it. I would have to imagine that is messing with your bass!

Check the setup and loading on the cartridge. Absolute phase won't make the system should thin: something else is up.