It comes with a balance knob?!?! I'll take it!


...said no one ever! I've been researching new gear and it hit me. Why, just why, do pieces have a balance knob? The only time in my life I can remember using said knob was to mess with the music and irritate my friends. You know, because it was cool to make every song sound like that classic Led Zep track. I think it was the 80's and on my Sanyo "boom box".

What is the point? To look retro? Do people actually use it and why?

Thought this might be fun to discuss and learn something new.

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I damaged my right ear drum at a Hot Tuna concert back in the '70's when  "The Wall of Sound" was popular (so why only the right ear you ask? It was at the Rutgers College Basketball arena and I was sitting on the right side with my right ear up against the speakers on that side) Anyway, it sometimes helps to make the right channel just slightly louder then the left. It's also the reason I like having defeatable tone controls. It may not be "pure", but it's all about the enjoying the music. 

I make a headphone amp with a balance  control. I had one customer ask for it just because he thought he needed it, and another that has a hearing problem in one ear. Depending on what he's listening to he has to adjust balance. 

Turned out to be a bit of a selling point.

 

 

Balance control makes sense even if hardly ever used in my case. It is God sent for hard of hearing in one ear, and may even be advantageous for normal hearing folks to better center the sound on some questionable recordings. More options is always a plus.

My main rig has no balance control. I only use it for critical listening and I sit in the sweet spot.  I don’t need a balance control for this.  I have a second system in the room that I use for casual listening and am always sitting somewhere other than the sweet spot.  The balance control on that one is critical.