normal vs reverse polarity

[serpretetsky]

I understand the concept of polarity, but I wasn't sure how to actually detect which setting would be correct to use. I recently got a subwoofer that has a button for normal or reverse polarity. I know i stayed consistent with my wiring between satellites, but i don't know if all of them are consistent compared to the sub.

It took a while, but I finally got it with a test tone generator by sweeping frequencies between 100 and 200 hz and setting my sub crossover abnormally high. While sweeping those frequenices i would press the normal/reverse button over and over again until i found one particular spot where the sound difference was dramatic, it was at 120hz.

I then set the test tone generator to 120hz and tried the normal and reverse modes. One mode was a little quieter, but even more interesting, it seemed to steal all of the sound away from my satellites and make it sound like it was coming from the subwoofer. It also caused strange spatial spots in front of my monitor where one of my ears would hear loud sound and the other very quiet. I decided that was the wrong mode, and it happened to be reverse. So i set it to normal and called it a day.


I suppose between subwoofer and satellites it's not as important as between the satelites themselves

How do you guys usually detect polarity problems between sub/satellites? between individual satellites?

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Polarity or phase?

 

[serpretetsky]

heh, i guess i meant phase

 

[JohnDC]

And there is electrical phase, and acoustical phase. They can both affect each other, but are not the same thing. Changing the phase using the switch on the sub can correct acoustic phase issues.