Schoolboy error!

Mischief managed, huzzah!

The same thing that happened to me recently, though it's not the Super Lumina cables. Yes, the overall sound will be thinner and the bass sounds weaker when the one of the cables is connected out of phase.

Glad you sorted it Pixies.

I would be interested to hear how things develop with the SL speaker cables. Assuming they are new, things will change (for the better) over the coming days and weeks.

Glad to hear all is well with the cables!  I've been demoing a set for the last week and , whilst they are better than my current cables in some ways, I'm not sure if I'd own a set. I just didn't find them a relaxing listen. Yes there is more detail, but I found the top end a little forced. Maybe they just need more time to burn in. Maybe they will have to be re visited at a later date. 

Respect for sharing this. I think I might have kept this to myself (along with all the 101 other idiotic things I manage to do / forget / mislay these days!).

It's not a schoolboy error, could happen to any of us, thanks for sharing...

My dealer once made me a set of cables out of phase.  He is a very accomplished engineer so it happens to the best of us!

And yet, I somehow love the wide, hyper-clear, slightly dopey soundstage of out-of-phase speaker cables...

Imagine the potential for getting this wrong when running active!  I have 3x the chance of connecting something up out of phase.  Plus for bonus points if you connect the wrong output to the wrong input (bass output to treble input) you get to blow up a drive unit for good measure!

Graham Clarke posted:

Imagine the potential for getting this wrong when running active!  I have 3x the chance of connecting something up out of phase.  Plus for bonus points if you connect the wrong output to the wrong input (bass output to treble input) you get to blow up a drive unit for good measure!

Now who could be stupid enough to do that Graham?

Hmm, I can think of at least three forum members who have done this (out of phase or blow up) either themselves or via the dealer, but I am far too nice to name and shame Tony

I'll admit that when I had my active SBLs with 4x135 I did manage to wire it up so that I got no sound from the LF tweeter.  And didn't immediately notice it.

Well if we're fessing up - yep done it!

When I first got my Linn Saras I ran them for a while with the protective parcel tape over the tweeters. I wondered why they sounded rather dull.......... That taught me not to tell my dealer "yes, of cause I can install them".

Ah, the old out of phase trick. Yep. Been there, done that.

Massimo Bertola posted:

And yet, I somehow love the wide, hyper-clear, slightly dopey soundstage of out-of-phase speaker cables...

For those of use who ran a tri-amp system at some point, we all have managed to hook one out of the six speaker wires out of phase with the remaining 5....the sound goes off in a way that is far less overt than in a conventional out of phase speaker. But the most subtle of all of the set up errors I have made is to have had all the six drivers in phase, but reversed the L and R tweeters. That produced some interesting imaging and most of the time sounded very good. But it sounded even better when all three drivers on the left were left channel and all three drivers on the right were right channel. This I suppose would be an Upper VI error ;-)

It's more challenging with NAP135 power amps, of course, which have the + and - sockets the same way round, unlike most stereo amplifiers which are +L- / -R+ or the other way round.

Having just written that, I think I'm going to have to check. I do hope I'm not wrong!

Ron Toolsie posted:

Massimo Bertola posted:

And yet, I somehow love the wide, hyper-clear, slightly dopey soundstage of out-of-phase speaker cables...

For those of use who ran a tri-amp system at some point, we all have managed to hook one out of the six speaker wires out of phase with the remaining 5....the sound goes off in a way that is far less overt than in a conventional out of phase speaker. But the most subtle of all of the set up errors I have made is to have had all the six drivers in phase, but reversed the L and R tweeters. That produced some interesting imaging and most of the time sounded very good. But it sounded even better when all three drivers on the left were left channel and all three drivers on the right were right channel. This I suppose would be an Upper VI error ;-) coded plugs 

Colour coded plugs, even marking on the cable, and colour coded sockets or clear labelling on the amp should eliminate the risk of unless you're careless...

But more fundamentally, in bi or triamped systems, there is a bigger  risk of the wrong driver being connected if the cables are identicel, with permanent damage likely to the tweeter and possibly mid units, and any carelessness can be expensive. A simple solution to that is to tag each end of the cables before laying them in place, so ther can be no mix-up...as long as care is taken to look at what is being connected to what, just as with phasing. And if the polarity is hard to determine on any particular cables, I suggest attaching a marker such as insulating tape or sticky label wrapped around one of the plugs, or wire where it enters the plug, or affixed to one side of a double plug.