On Mon, 22 Dec 2003 14:30:15 -0000, "Wally"
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Ah, I see. How does one tell if one's absolute phase is correct?

Method A) Experiment and compare the two settings. If you can tell
the difference between phases, choose the one you prefer. If you
can't tell the difference, it doesn't matter. :-)

Method B) Check the units in your system to see if they end up
'inverting' the signal, then consider which setting might be best for
ensuring your system is non-inverting (including the speakers, of
course).

Of course, in each case you have no idea *what* the studio, etc, did
to the signal before it arrived in your home, and there is a good
chance that some instruments, etc, were 'inverted' some of the time
whilst others were not. Hence you might decide it is just another
button to play with. ;-

I suspect it is (I don't have one - Ian's Arcam DAC has it - I'm stuck with
banana plugs on the speaker cables). Still, the Alan Parsons test CD has a
clean, dry recording of a bass drum, so I might rip that track and burn
straight and inverted copies to a CD-R and see if there is a discernible
difference. I feel doubtful that it would have much effect on other sounds,
but it strikes me that bass drum might do, given that it's a very short
pulse which is quite possibly assymmetric.

In case you weren't aware of it, your Meridian 203 is correct for
absolute phase.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering