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What position is your balance control set at and why?

For best balance and sound mine is set at 1-1:30. The right channel always seems lower. I have some hearing damage in my right ear from listening to car stereos in my youth. I’m 56. I do have ringing in my right ear but not the left. I have very bad sight out of my right eye which surprisingly make a difference in hearing. The left eye sees the left speaker most of the time and there must be some pyscho acoustic effect because if I close my eyes some of it goes away.  My clip light used to comes on and stays on maybe every 2-3 weeks and I would unplug everything and it would go away. Until I discovered if I stomp my foot hard it goes away! Funny like a plumber coming in and beating a pipe with a hammer and charging you $150!!!! The sound doesn’t change when that happens.  Go figure that. When I had a cable with a network box it would light up quite often. In the last 3 months I have changed out all cabling with Pangea interconnects and Canare 4S11 speaker cable. Is there some kind of low voltage issue with the right channel that would make the clip light come on even with any music playing???????
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michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi Guys

Hopefully this is of some use. One thing to keep in mind about recordings is every studio has a slightly different absolute center. Some are dead on and others drift to the left or right in playback. There's a ton of reasons why this happens, mostly being mechanical settings within the equipment itself. Another very important fact is, if you have a system that throws a nice halo in your soundstage, more than likely you are experiencing more of the spatial content than the engineer did in the control room or mastering room or reference playback room. Don't be surprised when you have your system setup so it has a bigger soundstage that you hear drifts more easily. Having your favorite Flooring Standing acoustical tool, along with your systems balance control and speaker/chair placement are part of the method of balancing, but there are other tricks you can do to make adjustments. One of them is setting your system free to mingle with the fields in your environment. I get into more on TuneLand, but for a quicky, take the chassis top off of your components and listen to what happens. Next, snip the wire ties and unscrew the transformer. Your equipment is tightened down to make it through shipping. It's not part of the signal design. Once you loosen these things your system is going to open up a lot, and it will after some breakin start to balance itself out and give you a bigger picture of the actual signal. Once you free up your components you'll want to rethink what your system is sitting on and how can you better start tuning in your sound. If you have specifics you can always visit me on TuneLand, but give some of these a try and discover how good your system really is.


Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
What with the loudness wars that have been going on for the last 20 years or so there is no volume level that you can reply on. Every CD and even LP is different. The level of one CD can be twice the level of another CD. Sorry about that. 😢 not to mention amps have widely differing output power and speakers have widely differing efficiencies. Not to mention the listener distance is very uh, variable. So it’s a little silly to compare volume control positions.
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
geoffkait - .....and speakers have widely differing efficiencies.
The scenario you describe might apply to completely different speakers. Two of the same speaker (brand/model) would also have differing efficiencies, but that should be extremely little, like less than one half of one db. 

geoffkait So it’s a little silly to compare volume control positions.
Right up your alley. :)
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
gdhal, did you forget to take your smart pill this morning? Even if two customers have the same speakers the amps are probably not the same (power) and they don’t sit the same distance from the speakers, etc. Are you pretending to be obtuse or are naturally that way? Earth to gdhal...👨‍🚀
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Actually gdhal....

"The scenario you describe might apply to completely different speakers. Two of the same speaker (brand/model) would also have differing efficiencies, but that should be extremely little, like less than one half of one db."

.....when you place one speaker on the left and one on the right there is a huge balancing difference. For those who have expansive soundstages the balancing act is crucial. Here's how big of a difference it is. Take a Martin D-28 and tune it up on the left side (where you would place your left speaker). Now take that Guitar to where you would have your right speaker. Do it with exacting measurements to how you have your speakers setup. Listen to how different the same guitar sounds in both left and right positions, it will amaze you.

I have a major problem with systems that do not have balance controls. Makes no sense to have every recording different and a system that is not able to play it correctly. I know High End Audio sold you a bill of goods saying no balance and no equalizing, but they were dead wrong and are paying the price for it.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net


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