I know, discussions on phase correctness drive me insane also. A contentious topic but I'm just curious if what I'm experiencing here is just placebo or not...

Ok so I'm biamping my 4343's with a 12db slope (Linkwitz Reilly I think) which I believe calls for the speaker wires for the high and low amps to be configured out of phase.

Now I originally experimented (months ago) by keeping the high amp wiring to the speakers unchanged and swapped the phase of the low freq amp only. So I tested Setup 1 vs Setup 2 (see below). I actually found that what had the best low end was the low freq amp in phase with the high freq amp (ie Setup 2 below). I kept it that way and have been listening to it for months like that.

Then I read about "Absolute phase" recently https://www.stereophile.com/content/...act-or-fallacy and decided to experiment further.

So just now I tried this: I kept the low freq amp unchanged and reversed the phase of the high frequency amp. So now the Low and High frequency amps are out of phase ( ie Setup 3 Below). Voila this sounded better than what I've been listening to for the last month (ie Setup 2). So to summarize this is what I tried:


Setup 1 (Worst, weakest bass)

- High and Low Freq amps out of phase.
- High freq amp black terminal of amp to black terminal of high freq on speakers
- Low Freq amp red terminal to black terminal of woofers.

Setup 2 (2nd best, better bass than Setup 1)

- High and Low Freq amps in phase.
- High freq amp black terminal of amp to black terminal of high freq on speakers
- Low Freq amp black terminal to black terminal of woofers.

Setup 3 (Best!, best bass performance)

- High and Low Freq amps out of phase.
- High freq amp Red terminal of amp to black terminal of high freq on speakers
- Low Freq amp black terminal to black terminal of woofers.

If we believe "Absolute Phase" this is my conclusion: Setup 1 sounded bad because absolute phase of the woofers was wrong, even though high and low amps were out of phase as they should be. Setup 2 sounded better as the woofers were now in "correct" absolute phase and this had a bigger net positive effect then having the high and low amps incorrectly "in phase" relative to each other. Setup 3 sounded the best because both absolute phase of the woofers was "correct" and a having the high and low amps "out of phase" was also correct.

Thoughts?