Music That Is Out of Phase?

[agent_kith]

For some background, refer to this poll.

The 30th anniversary SACD. Some of the tracks could possibly be phase inverted. Thanks to the SFX, the easier tracks to identify are 

1. Time: Listen to the bells/chimes. When you invert the phase, you'd find there is more height to the chimes, and the whole room is ringing. It just sounds more correct that way.
   
2. Money: Listen to the the cashier. It sounds disjointed with 'holes' until you invert the phase.
   

 

[agent_kith]

Musik Wie Von Einem Anderen Stern Manger Test CD

Are these tracks out of phase? Try inverting them and report back which you prefer. 

• 13. Walking On The Moon
  
• 15. Jazz Variants
  

[agent_kith]

While I don't have a matching version of DSoTM to that of the SACD, I do have a CD of "Amused To Death". And I find the CD edition to be far far superior to the SACD equivalent. Anybody have this in SACD? If yes, invert the phase. Does the music instantly flow better, and makes more sense?

In the beginning of the track, does the dog barking outside instantly become more realistic sounding? Does the guitar rifts flow better? Is the SACD now able to transport you to some weird trance, like the CD can?
 

Could this SACD, like the DSoTM before it (Roger Walters is a member of Pink Floyd) also be phase inverted?

It's really hard to do A/B comparison as the volumes don't exactly match. And because this has been remastered again on SACD, I wonder if converting this to PCM, and then try to sum it with the redbook will work (anybody have the time to run this?). Let me know what you think if you have this SACD (and CD).

[hkphantomgtr]

For some background, refer to this poll.

The 30th anniversary SACD. Some of the tracks could possibly be phase inverted. Thanks to the SFX, the easier tracks to identify are 

1. Time: Listen to the bells/chimes. When you invert the phase, you'd find there is more height to the chimes, and the whole room is ringing. It just sounds more correct that way.
   
2. Money: Listen to the the cashier. It sounds disjointed with 'holes' until you invert the phase.
   

The link in "Poll' goes to 404 Not Found

[agent_kith]

The link in "Poll' goes to 404 Not Found 

Ah. Didn't realised that, fixed. thanks for the headsup.

[mkysimes]

Ha, I just stumbled upon this post (a little late) and man does this take me back!

I grew up at the height of the "car audio" movement and listened to countless car stereos. Some were just crazy bass (I think my eyes are still twitching) and some were set up with sound quality in mind. I ended up preferring the latter.

A couple years into the hobby I bought a p.o.s. Chevy Cavalier for 250$ just to do pizza delivery part-time and of course had to upgrade the tunes. 2000$ stereo in a 250$ car? Sure, why not

As I was installing my Mb Quart components I accidentally wired the passenger side mid out of phase and when all was said and done and I finally got a chance to hear it I was floored! The sound was so real and the imaging was better than anything I had ever heard! Drums panned across the dashboard perfectly! None of the sound seemed to come from the speakers! It was a true "soundstage", something I thought impossible in car audio, especially with no rear fill or center channel.

Time alignment and other forms of DSP were reserved for the rich back then so to get that kind of sound was lucky. Of course that car only lasted about a year and when I removed the stereo and realized that the mid was out of phase I was puzzled to say the least. Since that day I was always mystified by phase and have played around with it over the years. Sometimes it helped and sometimes the cons outweighed the pros.

On my current system I have tweeter phase switches and find that I like movies in phase and music out of phase though the crossovers are in the enclosure so I don't mess with it as much. But I'll never forget that car stereo. It was one of the best I ever heard and i have phasing to thank (at least partly)!