Occasional Sound Imbalance Issue

@clearthinker , in my first thread on this issue I was convinced it was a room issue until I ruled that out. I did rearrange my entire system to face the opposite way, changed the couch position, and set up tons of padding to make a near 100% symmetrical room. The issue remained. I also tested the frequency response of each speaker at various frequencies, and replaced my digital front end with an old CD Player. At the time I didn’t get anywhere and I concluded that I was hearing an imbalance in the source material. What has changed since then is that I now know the problem can go away under the conditions I described, and that the problem is triggered by physically moving any component. I first discovered the latter when I was placing Herbie’s Tenderfeet under my components to rest on. I at first attributed the change to the effect of adding vibration control, until I realized I could never get the “balance” to be totally right when changing the position of the feet. It was when I found that leaving the system unpowered and disconnected from power (turning off the Torus power switch) fixes the issue that I realized the issue was not related to placement of the vibration control feet, but rather movement of any of my components…

One note, had I not purchased Valhalla 2 speaker cables last year, I doubt I would have noticed this issue at all.  They are far more revealing than my prior Clarus Crimson Biwire cables, which are less revealing but an excellent cable.

@holmz , great idea walking the generic cord through the system.  I will try that as soon as I have the issue again.  Could be a red herring, but I a have a suspicion that the sensitivity is related to the power cord leading to my Innuos Zenith Mk3 player/server.  There seems to be the biggest sonic changes/problems when I move this cable around, suspend it vs having it on the ground etc.  Same with moving (when I say moving, I mean by the smallest amount) the Torus as well, but the Innuos power cord is of course plugged into the Torus.  I’m currently considering replacing my Innuos Zenith plus PhoenixUSB Reclocker with either an Aurender N20 or an Antipodes K50, to simplify my system and cabling but also to hopefully get a bit of an upgrade in sound.  I’m not banking on it but I’m hoping that the issue disappears after I do that.  Hoping it’s some sort of sensitivity of the Innuos gear, but I really have nothing to back that concept up at this point.

Regarding measurements with a scope, I originally considered renting one, but I’m thinking this issue is so subtle (but still very annoyingly noticeable if even half paying attention) that it won’t show up with basic measurements.  I don’t know if the issue happens across the frequency spectrum but I only detect it on vocals that are positioned at center stage.

@holmz one other thing worth mentioning - I think you responded on my thread related to the feedback “roar”I was experimenting on my new Rel subs.  The left sub (only) picks up a 60Hz AC hum somehow, feeds it back and increases its amplitude in perpetuity.  The problem disappears when I move the sub a few feet forward.  I never resolved this issue, but it’s not an issue because it only happens when the left sub’s crossover filter is set higher than, you guessed it, 60Hz.

It’s definitely possible that the issues are related, seeing as there is definitely some underlying AC noise issue going on, that only becomes an issue in certain circumstances.

I should also note that I did audition an Audioquest Niagara 5000 unit and found that it’s transformers emitted a hum that I could hear across the room when powered on.  Audioquest notes right in their manual that some people have this issue, and many others online have reported having this hum.  Again, this is a sign of an underlying AC issue.

In short I do wonder if all three of these “gremlins” in my rig are attributable to the same root issue.

So @holmz i couldn’t resist trying your idea immediately and tried moving my player/server, and sure enough the problem returned.

I next tried the generic cord plugged from the wall (not my Torus) to the player/server. Unfortunately this test won’t work. I immediately realized that all of the air, depth and ambience on BOTH sides of the vocals was clobbered. There is no way I’d detect the issue with this test… And some people say power cords don’t make a difference… :)

Having triggered the issue again, I tried experimenting with placing cables in different sockets of my Torus. Changing these in the past has made subtle changes in sound (and in some combinations not so subtle). What I tried this time is clustering as closely as possible on the Torus the plugs powering three Innuos boxes in my digital chain. This seems to have worked! Vocals now occupy the 3D space more evenly (that’s the best description of the issue I just came up with - vocals not occupying the 3D space evenly). After this change I also noticed a more confident and forward midrange.

Of note, the Torus is a straight ahead isolation transformer that all my devices plug into - there is no isolation between devices. So maybe the Innuos devices could be feeding some noise back to the other devices.

It’s too early to celebrate yet - but so far this is promising. And I didn’t need a 12 hour power-off cycle…. Things are sounding great though!

Something to consider when using Torus as a “conditioner” I suppose.  I chose it because I found that the Audioquest Niagara 5000 buzzed as I mentioned above, and there were subtle tonal balance changes in upper frequencies it made that I didn’t like (and I’ve heard that pretty much all conditioners impact tonal balance in some small ways since they are filters that can’t be even across the band - since I experienced this with the Niagara I expect it’s true in general).