I think I understand your question.... and the answer is yes.
With any normal passive speaker the speaker itself is "phase agnostic".
It handles both halves of the wave form the same... and, if you invert the signal, and then also swap the wires, you should end up exactly where you started.
The speaker should move in one direction when the voltage goes one way... and in the opposite direction when the voltage goes the other way... symmetrically.
(See my note below about splitting hairs there.)
Sound is essentially and predominantly an "AC signal".
So, for example, when you whack a bass drum, you can see that the drumhead moves first forward, then backward, then bounces back and forth many times.
(It doesn't simply move towards you, move back to its resting position, and then stop.)
And, if you look at an oscilloscope trace of a recording of a drumbeat, after it's been through a microphone and a preamp, it actually looks more or less symmetrical.
(The diaphragm on a microphone doesn't move in one direction, come back to its resting position, then stop either.)
Yes, the drum does move in one direction first, and if you look carefully you can also see that the signal itself is not perfectly symmetrical after that.
(The top and bottom are not perfect mirror images of each other).
And, yes, our hearing is somewhat able to make that distinction, but it is less of a distinction than you might intuitively assume.
The practical reality seems to be that our hearing works mostly like a spectrum analyzer, notes the amount of each frequency component present, and ignores the phase.
Then, in addition to that, some portions of our brain detect specific details, like when the leading edge of certain waveforms arrive relative to each other, for "special purposes".
And some of those processes will react differently if the phase is different.
So, for example, shifting a sound 60 degrees doesn't change the way it sounds...
But shifting the phase of that sound, in one ear relative to the other, alters the direction from which our brain assumes that sound came from.
(This is why, if one speaker of a pair is out of phase, each speaker sounds fine by itself, but as a pair they sound really odd.)
The question is whether our brain is able to detect the actual difference in symmetry with a waveform that is somewhat asymmetrical...
And whether, if we do, we notice when it is altered or not...
From everything I've seen this is one of those things where "the difference is so tiny that some people claim to notice it and others do not".
(I personally have never noticed it on any recording I've tried it with... but I can't speak for everyone else.)
VERY relevant question.... and interesting thought....
Does a bass drum sound different when you're standing in front of it than when you're standing behind it?
(When the drummer, sitting behind the drum, hits the pedal, the sound he or she hears is in reversed absolute phase.)
As for the Ulfberhts.....
Beam steering works by applying small phase shifts between the individual speaker drivers in such a way that they partially cancel out in very specific ways.
You cannot actually control the direction in which sound exits a tweeter (at least not a cone tweeter mounted flat in a flat panel)....
But, by controlling the locations and phases of multiple drivers, you can arrange for sound going in one direction to add together, while sound going in another direction cancels out.
By doing this very precisely you are able to "steer" the remaining sound.
(And, because this process relies on very precise phase relationships, it's not unreasonable to assume that it might be especially sensitive to even minor differences in symmetry.)
Now... as for splitting hairs...
To be technically accurate virtually all loudspeakers are not perfectly symmetrical.
If you do the math, you'll realize that, choosing any specific cabinet, and any specific speaker cone...
If the cone moves forward 1/2" it will change the pressure in the cabinet by a slightly different percentage than if it moves backwards the same 1/2".
The difference in volume, expressed as a value, will be the same - but the percentage it changes will be ever so slightly different - so the difference in pressure will be different.
Therefore, the "return spring" provided by the pressure of the air in the cabinet will not be perfectly linear.
However, this asymmetry is neither intentional nor beneficial, it is merely a minor cause of a tiny bit of distortion... which is negligible in a well designed loudspeaker.
(This would be a great argument in favor of dipole loudspeakers - if their room interactions didn't cause far worse issues
.)
Here are a few links to oscilloscope pictures of "drum sounds"..... just for reference....
I suspect that the extreme difference that you noticed may be related to a specific characteristic of the Tekton Ulfberhts.
From what I've read the Ulfberhts are not simply a four way speaker.
As I recall, according to their description, they actually drive different tweeters in their array with different-phased signals to control dispersion and directionality.
(They're using a complicated crossover, which alters the phase between the individual drivers, in order to create a "steered array" of sorts.)
It's quite possible that this makes them especially sensitive to phase relationships that might not be significant with other speakers.
I should point something out however...
Even if the speakers do in fact sound different depending on the phase of the signal they're playing...
It's still difficult to know whether many modern recordings are in fact recorded in correct absolute phase to begin with...
Some labels claim to be especially careful to preserve absolute phase in their recordings... while many seem quite oblivious to it...
Thank you Keith,
Quick question and hopefully it doesn't take much of your time to answer. I'm really curious and understand that "absolute phase" is debatable within the audio community. My question is whether all crossover networks are "bi-polar". Is it irrelevant as to whether the polarity is changed going into passive crossovers? In context, I'm more or less wondering whether the "complicated" crossover network of the Tekton's are as you suggested perhaps more prone to phase issues.
Enjoy,
William
.)