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Several of you asked me to give you a couple of tracks so you could try flipping the polarity of your speakers (absolute phase) to see if you can hear the differences, as mentioned in the post Oops. There are many, some more obvious than others. Two that I think would be easy and perhaps likely to be in your library are the Shelby Lynne title track to her Album Just a little lovin' and John Mayer's Gravity from his Continuum album. So, if you have either of these tracks, it should be reasonably obvious on the singer's voice when the track is in phase or out of phase (polarity). To change from in to out, I use the phase button on the DirectStream DAC. One of the reasons I always use the DAC, relative to the preamplifier, is the DAC is digital and making the change in polarity is handled without any chance of artificially affecting the sound quality. On some preamplifiers and analog gear, one cannot always say the same thing with confidence. I hear the same difference on both singer's voices: in phase it sounds correct; warm and natural. Out of phase it sounds wrong; slightly thinner and harsher. I doubt I could walk into a room and identify in/out of phase on these two particular tracks. I do have other more esoteric tracks that I can absolutely tell in or out when I walk in the room, so large is the change. But that's rare for me. If you have either of these tracks, give 'er a try and let us know through the comments section what you find in your system.
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Paul McGowan

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