Achlys
Head-Fier
I really wonder why they would make a supposed professional monitoring headphone have this issue. I wonder if MM-500 suffers from this issue because my LCD-5 doesn't. I can easily hear the difference between correct vs inverted absolute polarity in blind tests and believe it is important to maintain correct polarity.Yeah, polarity is definitely matched between drivers at least. Here's another version of the polarity test that I did at home. You can see the MM100 is the only one that dips negative when the positive pulse track is recorded through the headphone via microphone. The monitor speaker and ATH M50X both swing positive first in response to the positive pulse.
I should note that I am driving the MM-100s via the included MM-100 cable. Just a 1/4" TRS to a 1/8" TRS into the left ear cup.
I don't really get that headphone wiring diagram. Can we have tips, rings, and sleeves labeled? What are the circles? The speaker input connectors?
LCD-1 measures with correct polarity on InnerFidelity: https://www.stereophile.com/images/ifmeasure/AudezeLCD1.pdfThere are many headphones with inverted polarity. Some Audeze Models (LCD-1, CRBN) also Stax headphones…
Also Bob Katz claim that inverted polarity on electrostatic headphones is incorrect. The audibility is caused by cochlear hair cells not responding to the negative half of a waveform.
In my blind and informal investigations, inverted absolute polarity can give the false impression of certain aspects such as soundstage, but it comes at the degradation of perceived fidelity. It is important to note that you likely need to be fairly well trained to be able to detect this reliably in most songs.Do you know why they are designed this way?
@squibble can you please check if the polarity issue applies to both of the inputs on the headphone?