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The relative polarity of CDs to their vinyl record counterparts

Posted by georgelouis (M) on May 18, 2006 at 22:47:12

Subject: CDs polarity versus their vinyl record counterparts

Dear Music loving audiophiles,

This will be short and to the point because I need to catch up on my sleep big time. I just returned from Stereo Unlimited a San Diego High-End stereo store. My friend of at least 25 years, Phil Botten, who is a big time audiophile and has worked at the store for several years and I conducted a series of listening tests with the Jazz at the Pawnshop on Proprius vinyl record and the Opus 3 Gitarr-Kvartetten Transcriptions vinyl record. Without a doubt the records were playing in the correct absolute polarity! Now I think you should pause here for just a bit and re-read that before reading ahead. To repeat it for one more time for added emphasis as if it was needed, the CDs of those records are in opposite relative polarity to their vinyl record counterparts because they were made out of absolute polarity and the vinyl records were made in correct absolute polarity!!!

We reversed the system's polarity at the back of the speakers because there were banana plugs that facilitated an easy and rapid system polarity reversal.

The equipment consisted of two-way speakers with a first order crossover, an integrated NAD amplifier, a Marantz SACD player, and a turntable with moving magnet phono cartridge, which Phil assured me was not being played back inverted, i.e. that the records were not being played back in inverted relative polarity to how they were made. Because that's the only caveat, that if the records were being played back in the opposite relative polarity to how they were made, then our test's conclusion would be the exact opposite, i.e. that those particular records were made out of absolute polarity and were in the same relative polarity as their CD counterparts.

We tested several CDs including Diana krall - Live in Paris that I posted online as being in absolute polarity, and another CDs whose polarity I'd already determined which tested the same. Our results agreed 100% with my previous findings! Phil didn't know in which polarity I'd connected the speakers until after he'd made his polarity call. Phil and I always agreed as to which polarity the source material was made in and being played in. I didn't tell him what my previous finds were so he was truly blind tested. And, incidentally, I hadn't heard the system previously. The SACD of Miles Davis - Kind of Blue was out of absolute polarity as is the CD only version that I own and whose polarity I'd posted online as out of absolute polarity. Phil also played a CD of music that I'd hadn't heard because he was a bit suspicious that it might have been made out of absolute polarity. We played it for about 20 seconds when he commented that he wasn't sure about its polarity but I said that I was willing to bet that it's out of absolute polarity. Within less than 10 seconds of reversing the system's polarity we both agreed that indeed the CD was made out of absolute polarity. All of our polarity calls were patently obvious and to be a bit redundant as easy as pie to make and there couldn't be the slightest doubt of the validity of our polarity calls!!!!!!! And the differences we heard were exactly the same differences I hear when I'm making my CD polarity calls. When you play record out of absolute polarity it sounds like the CD that's been made out of absolute polarity. Well that's exactly what I predicted when I said before making these tests that I was 99% sure that records would be in absolute polarity from my memory of how they sound.

One lesson to take away from all this is that when you're comparing a CD to its vinyl record counterpart you'd better be sure that they are both played back in absolute polarity or your not playing them on a level playing field. And another important thing you'll may need sometime to fully understand the full implications of these test findings, is that the higher the resolution of your system the easier it is to make absolute polarity calls because the higher resolution system make absolute polarity correct media sound better and thus makes the sonic and musical differences between in correct absolute media and out of polarity media greater. And since a system doesn't know whether the media is in or out of absolute polarity that its playing back, it plays back the out of absolute polarity material better as well but that makes the out of absolute polarity media's sound even worse! Thus if you're evaluating components or tweaks with out of absolute polarity media the worse the component or tweak that you're testing sounds the better they sound, the better they actually are because they're just revealing even more of the sonic and musical defects of the out of absolute polarity media. This has some very important implications for any components or tweaks that were inadvertently evaluated with out of absolute polarity media! I feel that many equipment and tweak reviews may need to be repeated with media that being played back only in absolute polarity. Now aren't I the master of understatement?

Once again it turns out that indeed if the phono playback was inverting the vinyl record's playback then the exact opposite conclusion is true.

I'm sorry for so many multiple exclamation points but you tell me if you think I've exaggerated the significance of these findings.

Best regard,

George, Perfect Polarity Pundit and Chief Polarity Buster of the Polarity Police. And if you want to join up I'm accepting applications for membership in the Polarity Police with the rank of First Tier Polarity Buster. I really am.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

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