stereo ?'s

[FISH_MAN]

does lot of stereo steer to the left? I have noticed this for some time and wanted to know what you guys thought. I know that with stereo different sounds come out of the right and left but it usually seems to pull to the left a little. only some artist pull to the right this seems weird to me.I have noticed
this in my headphones as well I use sennheiser HD650's it does it to a lesser
degree with my headphones.

am I crazy?

is my hearing out of wack?

is my system just telling the musical truth?

are my logans not toed in properly? "i used the flashlight trick with 3ft away from the back wall" and
I sit in the center sweet spot.

my room is symetrical

I know this probably a newbie question

 

[roberto]

does lot of stereo steer to the left? I have noticed this for some time and wanted to know what you guys thought. I know that with stereo different sounds come out of the right and left but it usually seems to pull to the left a little. only some artist pull to the right this seems weird to me.I have noticed
this in my headphones as well I use sennheiser HD650's it does it to a lesser
degree with my headphones.

am I crazy?

is my hearing out of wack?

is my system just telling the musical truth?

are my logans not toed in properly? "i used the flashlight trick with 3ft away from the back wall" and
I sit in the center sweet spot.

my room is symetrical

I know this probably a newbie question

Hola. Sometimes a difference in level could be several things, starting from the first component of the chain and the recording. Just for a moment, change the channels at the preamp input. If the difference in level moves to the other side, then you just had founded the culprit. If remains the same, then move to the next component. If all components are the same, then swap the speaker´s cable and listen. If still the same, then it is a room problem, if it did change, then move physically the speakers. The one that you have at the right, change it for the one at the left, but now everything connected as they should be. Listen again. You could have any component with a difference in level and if your preamp has channel balance you can compensate this difference. Once you had founded the culprit, then you know how to fix it...hope this can help!...happy listening and trust your ears,
Roberto.

 

[VanDaRo]

Maybe.

Part of the beauty of high end is that our highly accurate playback systems are very good at deciphering what the engineer and producers of the recording were trying to hear. Most of the time, the singer is dead-nutz centered, but sometimes the engineer shifts the singer to one side or the other to enhance the effect of another instrument (like a snare drum) and get it to stand out more.

In orchestral pieces, equal loading of the speakers is rare except in grand finales and other full-ensemble passages. But that is a function of the piece of music, the layout of the instruments in the recording environment and the conductors' interpretation.

If you still think there's an issue, pick up a test CD from Stereophile, XLO, Chesky or whatever and tweak your system to the nth degree. If you are still getting a left-channel bias, do what Roberto said. And it is possible (even likely) that you hear better in one ear over the other at some frequencies.

BTW, how old are your panels ?

~VDR

 

[FISH_MAN]

they are spires

they are spires with new panels

 

[roberto]

they are spires with new panels

MMMM...IMHO I do not think that the Spires are the culprit. By any chance, do you have any component that you could change the absolute phase of the recording? Other way, is reversing the polarity of your Spires. Playing just a classical guitar, or a piano solo, it is very easy to understand the absolute phase. On the right phase, you get the right size of the instrument and also the right stage, on the other hand, when you have it wrong, the instrument is too big and it is very hard to get the stage proportional of the music. With guitar, concentrate at the reverberation, when it is right, you have less reverberation, when is wrong, you have too much reverb. Perhaps this might help. Happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[Feltran]

I've been listening, and it seems to me that almost everything pulls to the left. I never noticed this before, and it's actually starting to bother me!

 

[FISH_MAN]

yeah its crazy

Feltran I understand that stereo does not have the same data out of both speakers that is the whole idea but it seems the weight of the music is to the left. I am glad I am not the only one who has noticed this

 

[nsgarch]

Feltran I understand that stereo does not have the same data out of both speakers that is the whole idea but it seems the weight of the music is to the left. I am glad I am not the only one who has noticed this

You may want to have your hearing checked because you might not have the same frequency sensitivity in both ears. It doesn't hurt to clean your ears out occasionally. I've always used a 50-50 mixture of alcohol and white vinegar to irrigate, and kill any fungus (swimmer's ear.) To avoid liability, I'll leave the technique to you.

If you want to cheap out and save money for music, UNSW (University of New South Wales) has one of the best (if used properly) online hearing tests. You'll need some decent headphones: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html

 

[amey01]

I wish I'd seen this earlier. I too, have noticed this phenonomen! It used to drive me totally batty, but now I've just learned to live with it because if I don't then I won't enjoy music. It has affected every single system I have had - and is still present when not one single component is the same (including the room).

I just went off and did a few tests, using a white noise .WAV file played through my Squeezebox and my left channel is indeed 1.5 dB louder!

Not uncommon, but what I did next is the surprise (and annoyance)! I reversed (L to R and R to L) the outputs of the preamp and now the channels are within .5 dB of each other. To me, this indicates that it is a progressive drop or increase over ALL my components. Other L to R swaps have confirmed this.

Interesting if you guys did the same and get the same results as me?

 

[JonFo]

It's actually not uncommon to find anywhere from 0.5 dB to 1.5dB variance between a L/R pair of speakers after several years of operation. And occasionally, when new, but that's bad QC.

Crossover caps age differently, and other components will begin to affect the SPL and FR of the speakers differently. Minor, but measurable.
Also, placement in the room will unbalance the SPL levels overall, and if looked at through detailed frequency and time domain measurements, you will see that room reflections (including from furniture) really skew the sound.

As Neil points out, the listeners hearing can also be the root cause. So check that first

 

[jjay]

or it could be you listening room. My listening area in an open floor plan is slightly louder on my left speaker as room opens up on the right side. Just use a spl meter and adjust your balance on your preamplifier. The room is as important as your equipment to achieve the best sound.I would guess most of us do not have perfect listening rooms.
Good luck
Jim