Ever Wired Your Speakers Out of Phase? - On Purpose!

[Crocodile]

Due to some changes in circumstances which I won't bore you with, I've been forced to relocate the TV & stereo in a 6 foot alcove. Amp is a Rotel RA-1062 driving MA RS6s.

I bought a smaller AV stand so that the speakers weren't tight against the side walls & experimented (as much as constraints allow) with positioning. I now have some fairly serious toe-in which goes some way to reducing boom but not eliminating it (even with bungs). The Rotel has "contour" controls that allow bass to be increased but not reduced.

So there I was thinking what else I could do to reduce bass when I thought about how out of phase speakers lose bass. So just for experimentation, I swapped the bananas on one speaker. Boom gone!

OK, so had a lot of the bass that should be there so I cranked the contour switch up a notch. And so far, on a very brief listen, it actually sounds OK.

 

[pwiles1968]

I have but only on rear speakers in a surround syatem when I was running 2 speakers from a single channel.

I would have thought you would have lost all of your Imaging/staging by doing what you have said, the only time i have hooked up stereo speakers out of phase (accidentally) they sounded awful.

 

[SteveR750]

The soundstage collapses, and makes everything sound like it was produced by Brian Eno.

 

[cstanwhf]

The volume should decrease a little as well for your case since some of the sound will cancel each other out.

Tried it to run in the speakers face to face before.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Have to agree with the comments above: you may have reduced the bass, but you're also now listening to two channels, not stereo.

 

[Richard Allen]

Crocodile:
Due to some changes in circumstances which I won't bore you with, I've been forced to relocate the TV & stereo in a 6 foot alcove. Amp is a Rotel RA-1062 driving MA RS6s.

I bought a smaller AV stand so that the speakers weren't tight against the side walls & experimented (as much as constraints allow) with positioning. I now have some fairly serious toe-in which goes some way to reducing boom but not eliminating it (even with bungs). The Rotel has "contour" controls that allow bass to be increased but not reduced.

So there I was thinking what else I could do to reduce bass when I thought about how out of phase speakers lose bass. So just for experimentation, I swapped the bananas on one speaker. Boom gone!

OK, so had a lot of the bass that should be there so I cranked the contour switch up a notch. And so far, on a very brief listen, it actually sounds OK.

Try wiring BOTH speakers out of phase. The image will come back and as Andrew Eerard says, you are listening at the moment to 2 channels. With both out of phase, you go back to stereo. I've done this intentionally for the very reasons you state. It does work.

 

[cheyworth]

you could bi-wire the speakers but wire the bass out of phase?

 

[Anonymous]

I would probably be looking at changing speakers, if you really have to have your speakers in this location I would maybe consider smaller speakers or a sub with satellite speakers. Is there any flexibility in positioning if you move to this type of setup i.e. could smaller speakers be placed outside of the alcove?

 

[zappa 100]

swap both speakers over but leave the amp connections alone and you get "inverted phase "..............

 

[Crocodile]

Well like I said, it as just a quick listen. I'll have to to find time to play some more.

For the foreseeable future, this is what I'm stuck with.

 

[simon3102000]

ah man that sucks, you could always move house!!!