ET2 Owner’s Manual
10
etting The Most From Your ET2
In a system of commensurate high quality components, the
conrad-johnson ET2 offers an unparalleled level of sophistication
and refinement in music reproduction. To get the best performance
out of any audio system, there are a number of important details
that must be attended to.
Absolute Phase
Musical notes are heard through the ear’s response to waves of al-
ternating rise and fall of air pressure. Musical transients are almost
exclusively positive: that is, the initial effect is a rise in pressure.
The ear is capable of distinguishing these positive transients from
the musically unnatural alternative of a negative transient (an initial
fall in air pressure). In terms of your stereo system, these tran-
sients are created by your loudspeakers. If the speakers respond
to musical transients by first moving out, they are creating a rise in
pressure, and the system is said to be phase correct. If they re-
spond by moving in, they create a fall in pressure and the system
is said to be phase inverting. Each component in the stereo system
either preserves the phase of the incoming signal, and is said to be
phase correct, or inverts the phase and is said to be phase invert-
ing. It is unimportant whether an individual component is phase
correct or phase inverting, as long as the system as a whole is
phase correct. This will be the case if the number of phase inver-
sions is even (or zero).
The ET2 is phase inverting. If your system has an odd number of
inversions, (for example, if the ET2 is the only phase inverting unit
in the chain) then you must add one phase inversion. This is con-
veniently done by reversing the positive and negative connections
to your speakers (be sure to reverse both channels). If you are not
sure about the phase of every piece in your system, you can estab-
lish correct absolute phase by careful listening. When the system is
in correct phase, transients will be noticeably cleaner and more
sharply defined. The effect is especially apparent on plucked string
sounds. A final warning - not all recordings are phase correct (in-
cluding some “audiophile” recordings), so listen to several before
concluding your investigation of absolute phase.
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