Is your image centred?

LUNA: Take it from me, please, if you dwell on this past due diligence you will spoil your pleasure. Do whatever you can, with yourself and your chosen experts, to make your rig as good as it can be. Past that there is a point of no return where it ain't about the music at all anymore, and that will not be satisfying or fun on any level. Do what you can, and project your mind into that off center image as if it were the whole of space. It is all mind anyway....

With what I just said not withstanding, yes, try a mono record and know for sure.

I also mostly hear the off center effects with 70's and 80's lp's (mostly rock), although some lp's from all era's have this anomaly.

I also hear variations within the soundstage. The most hard panned information can sound like it is coming right out of either the left or right speaker. Sometimes hard panned images can also be located at various depths right behind speakers.

As for the loudest sounds (what I would call the center image), that can vary anywhere within the soundstage, in other words, from side wall to side wall (sometimes even the illusion of outside the walls), it can also change in depth, from in front of the speakers to the front wall. This also sometimes changes within a single cut and/or album.
Also, often the highest level information is off centered, while lower level information is centered. If you understand how a stereo mixing board works, you'll discover that almost any variation of imaging is possible.

I would think if you are hearing every album with a centered or near centered image, you're not hearing a high resolution system. The fact you hear variation in central images is actually a good thing!

If it is natural to hear these things with analogy, then I can accept that. After all these years with CDs, I just found them sounding a bit steady in this regards. They may have artificially corrected the mix before creating the CD masters! I will get a mono disk to try out as well. Analog could be more fun but also more hard work to get it right!!!

Analog could be more fun but also more hard work to get it right!!!

Yeah, well. Where ya' been? ;-) Digital does a few things well. In some cases, very well. But to get that real, you are there sound. Analog is the way to go. For the record I do work at and enjoy both mediums.

A mono recording is good for helping to set azimuth, and maybe trouble shooting a system problem. But I suspect that for someone who seems to be sensitive to imaging, you probably won't enjoy mono. Hopefully, in spite of all of this mind trick image stuff that some place so much importance on, you will find a mono recording of music that you enjoy. Regardless of the medium that is still what all of this is about.