phase shift?

[aaron7114 10+ year member]

I noticed on my amp the other day there is a switch for phase shift. You can put it on 0 degrees or 180 degrees. What exactly is this and what should it be put on?

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[aaron7114 10+ year member]

is there any difference really between the two?

 

[psyrex 10+ year member]

To explain phase difference requires a brief lecture on sine waves.

Basically, when the sub receives a signal pulse, it moves from center to forward, to backward, and then back to center. A 180 degree phase shift means when it receives a pulse, it moves from center to backward, to forward, and then back to center.

There is no difference in power or quality for the sub itself. The only major difference is how it interacts with other subs, speakers, mounted forward firing or back firing, etc.

 

[cleanerupper 10+ year member]

In my experience, when a sub is faced forward (towards the driver) you want to have it phased at 180 degrees and when faced back (away from the driver) you want to have it phased at 0 degrees.

That way, depending on how deep your trunk/rear area is the sound wave will get a few extra feet of travel making it sound better when it hits your ears.

 

[mannyb18b]

it depends...just play with it a little an see what you think sounds best.

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

just play with it until it sounds better.

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

Cosine wave //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[dkguitarist 5,000+ posts]

i always thought you used it for inverting your subs as well.

 

[supraman1379 10+ year member]

I use the 0 - 180 switch on mine when I had inverted subs.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

i always thought you used it for inverting your subs as well.

You don't have to. To say that you need to reverse the phase on the subwoofer by 180* when inverting infers that it performanced best with 0* phase shift when mounted "regular" ...which may or may not be the case.

It's best to simply do as was suggested....try it both ways and see which sounds best. There are so many variables that there's simply no way to know which will sound better until you try them both, regardless of whether or not the subwoofer is inverted.