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RVG and polarity problems


Jim Dye

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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 by Jim Dye
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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!

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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 :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.

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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...

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest GregM

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.

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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?

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