DacMagic - Inverted Phase - when to use? And what to listen for?

[Peter Larsen]

I own the Dacmagic and love it. Cambridge explains the three filter settings very nicely, but do not go into detail regarding the possibility of inverting the phase. I have tried inverting it and actually think I can hear a difference, but what should I listen for and how do I know if I have to invert the phase? In the manual it just states that if one suspect the phase is wrong you can use the Dac to invert the phase and thereby correcting it. Is this like when you cable your speakers + and - wrong and the speaker plays into the cabinet instead of out? It doesn't sound as if thats what the Dac does when inverting the phase - the sound difference is not that drastic. So what does it do then?

 

[Anonymous]

Is this like when you cable your speakers + and - wrong

Yes exactly. In phase or out of.

 

[Anonymous]

I was just about to ask this question, I tried it briefly and didn't really notice any difference (but didn't listen too hard for it).

ÿ

Surely if all connections are correct you shouldn't need it?ÿ

 

[Peter Larsen]

trevor79:Is this like when you cable your speakers + and - wrong Yes exactly. In phase or out of.

ÿ

Hmm, I just did some tests where I inverted the phase by switching + and - on my speakers and the difference was obvious. Then I inverted them back again and tried inverting the phase on the DacMagic instead. The difference was not as dramatic, but there was a difference. When phase is inverted the sound seems a bit brighter and more open. Would that indicate that I should use inverted phase? How can you hear when the phase is correct/wrong? And why would my CA 640C V2 be sending an incorrect phase out of the coaxial plug?

 

[John Duncan]

I thought it was more to do with particular recordings, to bring a vocal further to the front or whatever. I don't think I've actually tried it, since that would require reading the manual. I may today though.......

 

[Peter Larsen]

Found this link that explains it fairly well, and the polarity of the speakers has nothing to do with the phase.

ÿhttp://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/absolutephase.html

ÿ

 

[John Duncan]

Tried it, and it didn't seem to make much difference tbh. A/B not that easy without remote though.

 

[chebby]

I have listened to all three settings. Leaving the thing off (whatever setting that is called) is probably best although it did not seem to change anything regardless of setting. Probably just for 'twiddlers' who like a bit of play value.

Maybe the DacMagic designers put this feature in to make customers anxious about something ("Aaargh! What sounds best?") and get them talking about it more on forums and thus raise it's profile on Google.

 

[John Duncan]

chebby:I have listened to all three settings. Leaving the thing off (whatever setting that is called) is probably best although it did not seem to change anything regardless of setting. Probably just for 'twiddlers' who like a bit of play value.

Maybe the DacMagic designers put this feature in to make customers anxious about something ("Aaargh! What sounds best?") and get them talking about it more on forums and thus raise it's profile on Google.

Nah, I was talking about the phase setting there (which will now remain untwiddled). The filters do make a difference, but I can't really be bothered getting out of my chair for every different piece of material.

 

[Anonymous]

As said earlier it's exactly the same as swapping the speaker red and blacks round.

You can only really hear the difference with percussive sounds as the speaker cone is moving inwards on the leading edges not outwards as it should be

You can't see that though only hear it.

 

[the record spot]

Would love to hear the CEOs thoughts on Ashley's comments in that other thread on this page...!

 

[Anonymous]

the record spot:Would love to hear the CEOs thoughts on Ashley's comments in that other thread on this page...!

Here's what the Technical Director at Cambridge as just told me:

"The difference should be the same. None of our products invert phase, we are anal about that! But someone elses might do it or even the disc could be mastered wrong. Hearing it is hard, most people can't, it's simply a case of trying it and if it sounds better to you one way then stick with that. Actually the issue is complicated by the fact that many speakers have large phase shifts, so the user could find that nominally inverting the phase via the DACmagic sounds better"