Car audio "Phases"

Thought I’d do a little ditty to help you all out with your installs.

For those who know what this is and how to sort the problem then please don't take this as an insult to your intelligence.

There are 2 types of “Phase” in car audio, electronic and acoustic. Phase basically means how two speakers move with each other.

For a speaker system to be electronically in phase both channels must be wired the same way. I.E (+ to + and – to –). This is basic and I sure most people could identify this.

There is, however; acoustic phase and this can do some weird things to your car audio as your car is a dynamic environment. A scenario is best used to explain this so here we go.

You’ve wired up your speakers and amps and situated your speakers in the front of your car. You have ensured the speakers are “electronically” in phase and start to listen to your new system.

The bass seems tight an punchy but as you listen to the vocals you can’t place the sound from the centre of the sound stage. You move your head about the car and notice that the stereo sounds better when your head is in the middle of the car (somewhere between the front seats).

So why is this?

The simple answer is that your stereo is “electronically” in phase but “acoustically” out of phase.

So how do I resolve this phase issue?

Now this will sound like madness to most of you I’m sure but please believe me, you won’t blow your speakers up doing this. Lol

To resolve an acoustic phase problem you have to reverse the polarity of one of the speaker channels. Basically instead of running 2 channels ++ -- you have to wire – to + and + to – on the other channel. (sounds like stereo instructions huh? Lol)

For those of you, who are a little scared at the moment, please don’t be. Lol

What this does is reverses the direction of the speaker so when one speaker punches bass out the other will pull bass in. (Use of arrows may help this demonstration so see below.)

Electronically in phase does this:

Left speaker punches > < right speaker punches out too.

Reversing the polarity of a speaker channel does this:

Right channel reversed.

Left speaker punches > > right speaker punches the opposite way.

Left channel reversed.

Left speaker punches < < right speaker punches out normally.
It doesn’t matter what channel you reverse as they will both have the same effect.

Once you’ve done this it will move the sound outward from the centre of the car and back to the drivers & passengers seats, where it should be.

This takes 10 seconds to do and will improve your system 10 fold.