Occasional Sound Imbalance Issue

There are certainly a lot of random theories that could be possible. It certainly seems to be a more pronounced problem with some Torus outlets vs others. But @tmiddle I think you could be on the right track here. Just a theory, possibly in the category of bizarre conspiracy theories, but I too am now thinking it could be vibration related based on my latest experiences just recently.

I now know that my Innuos gear is not to blame, as I recently acquired an Aurender N20 and it has exactly the same issue. I’m finding now that simply shutting all power off for 20-30min and turning back on seems to clear up the issue. And as above, the issue ONLY re-emerges if i physically mess with power cords or the components, even if just slightly.

My working theory (which could be garbage) is that like you, I first noticed and I continue to notice the issue is triggered when placing vibration dampening feet under any of my components. When I do that the first time the problem is sure to emerge, every time. But removing the feet doesn’t fix the problem. Also, and here is the weird part: moving the feet around changes the nature of the imbalance. It makes you think if you get the position just right, the problem will be fixed. But, I’ve never succeeded in fixing the issue this way. The only fix is to power off and back on, but it’s not guaranteed to fix it every time by doing this. Right now, it is fixing the issue after only a short power off. But a few weeks back when I posted this, I was struggling to get things to rebalance at all - was possible, just took a lot of random fiddling with cables and vibration control footers.

I do know that high end digital components have vibration compensation built into their circuits. That’s a fact. Here’s my loopy theory: I’m wondering if they are somehow taking a “reading” after power up, gauging the vibration profile of the device. And if you do anything to mess with that after it’s taken it’s “reading” and set whatever parameters it sets, by say moving heavy power cords that are attached to devices, or manipulating vibration control feet, then the calibrated setting is no longer correct.

Just a half-cocked theory, but I too have started to wonder if it’s an impact related to vibration, resonance, and the circuitry I know exists to deal with vibration.

Go no further unless ears are clean. Check each one out one at a time to see if equal. Not to say clean ears are necessarily equal but at least that’s a start. Next would be a hearing test.  After that, then you are in business. 

Yep, that was it.  Ear fungus…. 

Just thinking about this again and wondering if it’s possible that when after your gear has warmed up if maybe the metal chassis becomes “torqued” out of square so to speak and this prevents your footers from all making solid contact. 
Might be worth a shot to carefully loosen and retighten chassis screws at strategic points. Long shot, I know…..

I had the same issue for months and I tracked it down to the internals of my speaker. The woofer chamber at the bottom had become unglued from the bottom facing port and repositioned itself inside the speaker so I didn't notice with moving it small increments until one day I actually picked it up and heard a rattle. I opened the bottom and had to reglue into position, and it fixed my problem. Check inside your speakers for anything loose. See woofer box in bottom (my example) in diagram.