Audyssey XT32 Says My Titan Horizon Center's Polarity is Reversed?

[edgeh2o]

I just got my Titan Horizon and am doing first time Audyssey calibration with it using my Denon X3500H.

After the first round of chirps, it gave me an error message saying the center channel's speaker polarity is reversed and it wants me to swap the red/black speaker wires. Should I do this?

Just for fun, I turned off all my other speakers and played a song using multi-channel mode. I swapped the red/black speaker plugs and it mostly sounded the same but had a lot more bass. I did run a round of chirps with the wires reversed and it did NOT give me the reversed polarity error.

Not sure what to do in this situation, never had it come up for me before.

[davef]

I just got my Titan Horizon and am doing first time Audyssey calibration with it using my Denon X3500H.

After the first round of chirps, it gave me an error message saying the center channel's speaker polarity is reversed and it wants me to swap the red/black speaker wires. Should I do this?

Just for fun, I turned off all my other speakers and played a song using multi-channel mode. I swapped the red/black speaker plugs and it mostly sounded the same but had a lot more bass. I did run a round of chirps with the wires reversed and it did NOT give me the reversed polarity error.

Not sure what to do in this situation, never had it come up for me before.

It is a common issue with some receivers and Audyssey to report reverse polarity. Please connect the polarity in positive phase.

if you had no other speakers playing, it is not possible to hear any difference between positive and negative polarity. Did you have your subwoofer connected? If yes, than you might consider adjusting the phase on your subwoofer.

[edgeh2o]

It is a common issue with some receivers and Audyssey to report reverse polarity. Please connect the polarity in positive phase.

if you had no other speakers playing, it is not possible to hear any difference between positive and negative polarity. Did you have your subwoofer connected? If yes, than you might consider adjusting the phase on your subwoofer.

Gotcha. I searched the forum after I posted and found someone else had just posted about the same thing, though with an ELX tower.

No subwoofer yet... working on that next. Speaking of which, now that I did a brand new round of calibration, the only way to set a HPF crossover to my fronts would be to lie and tell Audyssey that I DO in fact have a subwoofer, right? (My old calibration file was done when I did have a subwoofer so my fronts were already set to small).

Any ideas why there was more bass from the center when I temporarily reversed the wires?

[davef]

Any ideas why there was more bass from the center when I temporarily reversed the wires?

Are you sure you weren't just imagining it? Reversing the polarity on a speaker has absolutely no effect on speaker performance. It will, however, affect how a speaker blends with another speaker in the bass frequency ranges. If no other speakers were connected, it isn't possible to have heard a difference.

[davef]

Are you sure you weren't just imagining it? Reversing the polarity on a speaker has absolutely no effect on speaker performance. It will, however, affect how a speaker blends with another speaker in the bass frequency ranges. If no other speakers were connected, it isn't possible to have heard a difference.

Yes, you can lie and tell Audyssey you do have a subwoofer - if you want to set a HPF without actually having a subwoofer.

[davef]

Giving this some more thought since you aren't using a subwoofer...

Phase is something that is rather complex and depends on many variables, most critical of which is the distances between you and the speakers, and the distances between one speaker and another.

Since you are not using a subwoofer, phase becomes even more complex because you are going to get deep bass frequencies from 3 of your speakers, your L/R LX and your Horizon center which are all at different positions in your room.

So, with that in mind - I recommend turning Audyssey off completely. Run some full range music on multi-channel stereo with just your front 3 speakers connected (LX pair and Horizon). Leave the polarity on your Horizon as positive, the same with your LX.

Listen to bass tracks while seated in your listening position. Then reverse the polarity on the Horizon and listen to the same tracks.

Whichever polarity for the Horizon provides the deepest overall bass response at your listening position is the polarity you should use for the Horizon. After this, then run Audyssey again. if you still get a phase error, just ignore it.

Once you do add a sub and HP the left/center/right speakers, then make sure the polarity for the center is positive.

Phase gets quite complicated when you have multiple speakers all playing the same deep bass frequencies. Which is another major advantage of adding a subwoofer...

Hope this makes sense!

[edgeh2o]

Are you sure you weren't just imagining it? Reversing the polarity on a speaker has absolutely no effect on speaker performance. It will, however, affect how a speaker blends with another speaker in the bass frequency ranges. If no other speakers were connected, it isn't possible to have heard a difference.

Tried it again - I was definitely imagining it. I need a nap.