plauged by off center image, am I insane?

There is no law to say that a soloist must be recorded equally in left and right channels, so that they image dead center. If your system images well it can put a sound source anywhere between the speakers, and sometimes outside them. The cure for vague imaging is to use a center speaker. Soloists that are recorded dead center will be nailed by the center speaker (regardless of listener position), and off center sources will image nicely between the center and right speakers.

You need equipment with a remote controlled balanced control.

Bizarre how this expectation occurs to us since, as has been already pointed out by others, there is no reason music sounds better when coming at you from center stage. Is it strictly our expectations around our equipment? A 'natural'(?) desire for symetry? I wonder if most of us have equally good hearing in both of our ears. My Wright preamp has a Tilt control that would address the problem nicely. Any pre with dual volume controls would also work to center the image.

Interesting question. Thanks.

Marco

We are truly many who have had this experience with recordings. But to make a list it can be caused by:
1. Difference in components output ( the ear is a tricky thing to fool, and we can tell when there is a differnce in volume right and left, right? ).
2. Speakers are not properly matched in their sensetivety.
3. Cable connections ( inluding internal wire ).
4. Room is causing the trouble with windows, dooropenings, furniture or bookshelves.
5. Recording is not centered.
6. Speakers are not placed right.
7. An ugly combination of all/most/some above.

I have gone through the list in my search for the ´centre vocalist´. All of above was tested and measured. On some recordings, especially with female vocalists, I found that the centre floated off to the right when she struck certain notes. This was the combination of the speaker setup and the rooms acoustic that caused this ´floating´ to the right.
And just by moving one speaker ( missplaced by as little as 1/2inch ) I dead centred most recordings. It should not be noticed, but this small measure was the cause. I do have quite a narrow sweet spot, yes. But in comparison of driving me ´off-centre´-mad...

I think Drubin has got something aswell.

Hope some measures will help.

I have had the same problem, and to assure my self that I am not loosing it I have done extensive testing. Using a volt meter-the good old Radio shak multimeter-I have found everything to be within 1/100 volt, which equates to less than one db. Therefore I concluded it was one of three things, speakers, recording, or room. I switched the speakers and the imbalance did not follow. I have a hard time believing that every recording is off balance to the same side. Threfore I started looking at room reflections. The imblanace in my system is shifted slightly left of center. One side of the room is a wall, the other a window with coverings. The curious and perhaps concluding things is that the imbalance varied with frequency, type of voice, and volume. All this means reflecitons to me. Still working on it, but it is nice to know that I'm not the only crazy one.