Balance control vs. Speaker placement

Brian have you swapped around your source component interconnects so as to reverese Left & Right channels at various points along the signal path? You might have a marginal connection or cable, or even a component that's not within balance.

Hi Bob, I have noticed this for years in my system with numerous componants and they have been hooked and unhooked, I am sure it's the furniture that causes this.

I struggled with this for many months. It's bad enough that so many mastering engineers either seem to have worse hearing in one ear or a bad channel in their system, but to have to live with a non-symetrical listening environment is the pits. It sounds like you haven't tried acoustical treatments, which I highly recommend - check out some of the other threads. I believe that the balance control is frowned on if it adds an additional component to the signal path when it is off center. If this isn't the case, by all means use it (if the treatments don't work 100 percent). My purist preamp doesn't even have a balance control, so in the end, I actually replaced the gain resisters to get that last bit of shift.

I would suggest that you measure the speaker and room response of each channel independently. See if there are certain frequencies that are being attenuated by the room in one channel more so than the other. As previously mentioned an opening or other asymetrical occurance in the room can throw off the balance. Once you find what the frequencies are being affected you can make some modifications in terms of accoustical treatments to the other side to balance things out. If you are lucky, the frequencies affected are on the high side (say 1k and up), and then some absorbing material (sonex, RPG, or ownes corning panels) may be all you need. If the problem is lower, it's still a solvable problem, but likely more complex.

My system slightly favors the right. After alot of experimenting, I realized that the reasons are that my hearing is not as good in my left ear and that I have drapes on the left wall and not the right. (My slight hearing loss is primarily in the midrange area. This is due to years of loud car stereos.)

The system imbalance was most noticeable for me when the vocal did not sound like it was directly in the center. Trying to adjust the system with the balance control can make the vocal sound like its coming from the center but it throws everything else off to the left because the hearing loss and room anomalies are not the same at all frequencies. Therefore, adjusting the balance was not a good option. Two main reasons: 1) alot of low bass loss , and 2) loss of low level detail in the right channel. I did find that I could minimize this problem by getting the speakers optimally placed in the room. However, I always take great care to keep each speaker the same distance from my head and I use a laser to make sure both speakers are toed in at the same angle. In other words, my recommendation is not to move one speaker but to find the perfect place for the pair. Experiment alot by changing the distance between the speakers, distance of speakers from the rear wall and side walls, etc. Also, room treatments and room rearrangements can be helpful. and i babble on...........