By reversing the polarity of a time domain signal, can I cancel the source audio?

Question

I have an input signal in time domain (that is, discrete 14100 signed integers per second).

If I reverse the polarity (signed-ness) of each value, will I not produce a destructive source-audio canceling signal?

Answer 1

Destructive cancellation by simply reversing polarity will occur only if your total software/hardware/system/transducer delay time from your input signal to to your output signal to the point of cancellation is zero (or a very tiny percentage of the period of the highest frequency), and the frequency and phase response of the destructive transducer is absolutely flat.

e.g. only likely in fictional/theoretical models.

Answer 2

Yes, Phase inversion (and summing the two) will cancel the signal, resulting in silence. Of course, you must mind numeric limits.