Woofer in phase out of phase

[pegwill]

Hi
Having just read part of the room correction thread. I got to the part about the woofer being out of phase. I have some Aeons and as far as I can tell they are in phase with the panels. Is there any benefit of having them out of phase?. Many years ago I used to own a set of speakers where the tweeters were out of phase. I couldnt really tell if their was a benefit, but they were manufactured that way.

What would I be listening for to see if there was any difference - better or worse? As I have these bi-wired it is easy to swop

Many thanks

 

[JonFo]

...
What would I be listening for to see if there was any difference - better or worse? As I have these bi-wired it is easy to swop

Many thanks

Hi, typically having a woofer out of phase (by mistake) would result in worse sound, as you'd have cancelation at the crossover point.

Since you bi-wire, you could run a quick experiment yourself, using test tones, so it's easy to spot, you would hear a substantial reduction in the mid-bass lower-midrange points (~300Hz).

For the Aeon's I'd leave them as set at the factory, in phase with the panel.

Some speakers (not just ML) have crossover designs that turn phase by enough degrees that getting the next lower frequency driver (sometimes a midrange) to match requires that driver to be out of phase so that it is actually phase matched in some critical crossover region. It's yet one more reason for using active crossovers where type of band-aid is not necessary.

 

[Hear Here]

Hi
Having just read part of the room correction thread. I got to the part about the woofer being out of phase. I have some Aeons and as far as I can tell they are in phase with the panels. Is there any benefit of having them out of phase?. Many years ago I used to own a set of speakers where the tweeters were out of phase. I couldnt really tell if their was a benefit, but they were manufactured that way.

What would I be listening for to see if there was any difference - better or worse? As I have these bi-wired it is easy to swop

Many thanks

As JonFo suggests, the best test is to measure the output volume around the crossover frequency and choose the loudest option. This is when the sub and panel drivers are in phase with each other. Because of amplifier processing (remember the subs's signal passes through 2 power amps), it could be that reversing the sub's cables so it APEEARS to be out of phase, is in fact the best result because of the time delay in extra processing. In other works the cables say out of phase but the drivers are actually in phase with each other. The volume measurement will resolve the matter.