It's only the wiring up bit that can cause the actual signal to go a bit skew-whiff, therefore changing what the speaker or earphone is actually producing. Get that wrong, and the sound does get changed.

Earphones would hopefully we wired in phase (ie properly), so switching them around would have no effect on the produced sound apart from going into the "wrong" ear.

On each channel, either one of the two wires will be a specific colour, or one will have a little ridge running its length and the other will be smooth.

This is so that you can tell the wires apart.

Similarly, each of the the little terminal connectors on the backs of your loudspeakers are identifiable with a colour or marking of some kind.

This is because the two channels need to have the same "phase" connections, in order for the stereo image to sound as intended.

If you plug in, say, the ridged wire on the left channel to the red terminal on the left speaker, you need to plug in the same way for the right channel.

If you get one channel the opposite way round to the other, your stereo image goes wonky.

I appreciate that! It's bothered me for a while, and the subtlety of the actual wiring being different from one to the other didn't occur to me.

So you've just got to be consistent when wiring speakers, is that right? You don't have to worry which wire goes to which terminal on the first speaker; you just have to make sure you get it the same on the second.

Thanks again. Now back to the important stuff. What's your favourite record for castrating pigs to???

.....it just has to be f***in' loud, so probably not for doing in the back garden, certainly not next door to paul, pvincent, collibosher or Richard Lowe. It's never stopped me, tho......
EEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE slash splat

"Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no-one above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles, that's what you do.
On the morning sun in all it's glory
Greets the day with hope and comfort too
And you fill my life with laughter
You can make it better
Easy my troubles, that's what you do.
There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine
Like the sun at the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray to the one.
Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no-one above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles, that's what you do.......

It depends on whether you want to hear what the artist INTENDED you to hear or not. Mixing is a black art. Try listening to "Revolver" on a tour bus with one blown speaker, and yes, you'll hear less. Mix the speakers up and you'll hear it all but not as the artist intended. Personally, I think that's important... and you can get into a left/right brain argument here... but it depends on how much store you set by these things.

Speaking as an ex-radio producer...

When you say in your original post "the music sounds wrong", you are refering to inverting the phase, yes. (nowt to do with putting the speakers upside down, as other posters have already confirmed. it's to do with putting the actual signal upside down electronically).

So, you have phases on the L and R channels. they are positive at the same time. however, when one channel is reversed (i.e. phase reversed) a phase is reversed (i.e. flipped upside down), one channel is positive and the other is negative, and any common components to the two channels are cancelled out and disappear (most often the vocals)

So inverting the phase is also a quick and dirty way of creating a karaoke version of your track. The music "feels" hollow... hard to explain, it just feels wrong when you hear it!

So, as stated above, you can invert the phase at home by mixing up your amp / speaker wires. (i.e. you wire one end of the cable to "+" on your amp and the other end to "-" and vice versa). Or you can do it on your mixing desk with a button press. hours of fun.

anyway, I wasn't the most techhy producer in the world, so excuse me if some of the terminology I've used isn't 100% correct. but I'm pretty sure the gist is!