I had a discussion with a fellow member about phase, and polarity yesterday. We were discussing 180° phase shifts, and how it sounded different in my car than polarity swaps. He said they were identical, I didn't believe it because they sound totally different in my car. I explained that when installing my midbasses that I had to have the polarity right in order to get bass, when the polarity was opposite, I got cancellation, but after getting polarity correct, I could shift phase 180° and not get cancellation. It would just "detach" the sound from the drivers, and reduce localization. He insisted they were one and the same, and I had no arhuement to offer other than they sound different. After our discussion, I pictured a sine wave, and started to se where he was coming from.....holy shit that makes sense, but I still new the sound was different. That lead to a Google search, and this.........
http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.co...e-or-polarity/
Now this told me I was correct with my origional statement, and told me why they sounded different......but, I still don't have my head around explaining to someone the difference between the two. Now I probably should have gotten this from the link above, but its giving my head fits, I realize that they look the same in a sine wave, but the phase comes from delay.......but I can't put it together.......any of you guys care to break it down in layman's terms for me? Why no cancellation when it looks the same on an o-scope? I need some help with this!