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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Re: Absolute Phase - What does that mean? posted by Sean D on September 17, 2000 at 17:36:06:
You have hit a legitimate area of controversy in audio. Not all musical signals have a symmetrical wave form.There seem to be three main questions: Can we hear a change in polarity? If so, under what circumstances? Do we have anything in our hearing mechanism which would enable us to detect polarity changes? There would have been no evolutionary advantage in being able to detect polarity differences. This question has been 'discussed' here in the past by some very knowledgeable people, and I think those were the main sorts of issues.
Obviously, in speaker design, polarity and phase characteristics between the drivers affect the frequency response and time relationships, and even the dispersion characteristics. The polarity and phase can affect the integration of a subwoofer and the main speakers in a room. These things are arguably frequency response issues, rather than polarity issues as far as audibility is concerned.
On the other side, there are those who say that well-designed phase and time coherent speakers sound better. Not being an expert, I find the simple elegance of the the frequency response and dispersion argument attracive. But, my old speakers were phase coherent from the upper bass through the upper midrange, and my present speakers are phase and time coherent from the upper bass to the limits of audibility. So, I'm not really in a position to take sides!
With a few recordings, I think I can hear when the polarity is reversed, though I have not attempted to establish this under double blind conditons. One is 'Gabrieli & St. Mark's,' with the Wallace Collection brass ensemble, Nimbus 5236. Another is Jennifer Warnes 'Famous Blue Raincoat.'
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- Re: Absolute Phase - What does that mean? - Pat D 09/18/0007:33:23 09/18/00 (0)
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