Jim Dye Posted June 18, 2003 Report Posted June 18, 2003 (edited) Hey everyone, There is a nice guy over at the Steve Hoffman forums asking about RVG polarity issues. I don't know enough to comment intelligently on the topic. Would anyone care to give him a rundown? http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthre...&threadid=16982 Originally posted by MagicAlex Prompted by a post by Jamie in a thread about Coltrane's Blue Train I seem to remember something about an issue with some of Rudy Van Gelder's Blue Note recording sessions. The statement was this: In this thread: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthre...=blue+train+dad Back when the Blue Note forum was still in existence I read that many of the RVG sessions (not all) were recorded with the wrong polarity. Of course when they are played it makes the music sound narrow. Some had suggested that switching polarity on your system would make the music sound as it should. Of course all of you who praise the sound on the mono LP would never have noticed. It's been awhile so I don't remember all the particulars of the issue. Has anyone else heard this and can possibly elaborate on it? If this is the case it would seem that RVG would have corrected the problem during the remastering process. Edited June 18, 2003 by Jim Dye Quote
jazzbo Posted June 18, 2003 Report Posted June 18, 2003 I'm not going to tread a foot into the Hoffman forum. Greg, the king of polarity, is a denizen there; I'm sure he'll hip them to the drill! The polarity would affect tonal balance more than any "narrowing". . . but Greg knows it all and will set him straight! Quote
Jim Dye Posted June 18, 2003 Author Report Posted June 18, 2003 I'm not going to tread a foot into the Hoffman forum. Greg, the king of polarity, is a denizen there; I'm sure he'll hip them to the drill! The polarity would affect tonal balance more than any "narrowing". . . but Greg knows it all and will set him straight! LOL Geez...I forgot about that! Sorry to dredge up those bad memories! FWIW...I don't see Greg posting with much frequency at the Hoffman board. Plus, there are a lot of nice people there. Quote
jazzbo Posted June 18, 2003 Report Posted June 18, 2003 Yeah I know that. I post way too much in several too many places anyway, that's the main reason I don't want to go there. . . I'm concerning myself less and less with "sonic matters" too which is GOOD. Quote
davef Posted June 19, 2003 Report Posted June 19, 2003 There really are a lot of nice people on the Hoffman board and it's pretty civil too - the moderators keep a tight rein on hostilities... ... Steve Hoffman's a good guy, nice to know a (very good) mastering engineer will patiently answer everyone's questions... Quote
MagicAlex Posted June 19, 2003 Report Posted June 19, 2003 No takers? I was the original poster over at SH. I know that there was alot of discussion of this on the old Blue Note forum. I am truly intriqued. Quote
RDK Posted June 19, 2003 Report Posted June 19, 2003 Yeah, Greg pops up over at Hoffman but as far as i can tell *only* to trumpet new SACD releases. Quote
STAX Posted June 20, 2003 Report Posted June 20, 2003 I remember this from a couple of years ago. Does this apply to other recordings besides those of Van Gelder? Quote
David Williams Posted June 20, 2003 Report Posted June 20, 2003 Probably. To hear the effect for yourself just swap the +ve and -ve terminals at BOTH speakers - I still haven't got around to trying it, myself. Some hifi components reverse polarity - this is usually stated by the manufacturer if it's the case. Quote
Guest GregM Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 It's not much of a hassle for me because the rear panel of my amp is very accessible. If it's the difference between muffled/diffuse/edgy and open/relaxed/palpable, I'll get off my butt, take 3 seconds and hear it the right way. Quote
Shrdlu Posted July 2, 2003 Report Posted July 2, 2003 I've been reading about this for years, now. Does it REALLY improve anything? It would be nice to settle this matter once and for all. But I sure don't want to have to unscrew the speaker wires all the time. By the way, I tried another JRVG with my new speakers today ("Leapin' and Lopin'"). As with "Speak Like A Child", I got AM radio, but this was fixed by rolling the treble knob way down and the bass way up. Of course, that kind of adjustment should have been done when the CD was being prepared. Why don't they test the sound before issuing the CDs? Quote
David Williams Posted July 3, 2003 Report Posted July 3, 2003 Have you tried it yet, David? Still not yet. Maybe this weekend Quote
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