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Unstable Imaging - Causes?

I've been listening to my Music Hall MMF-5.1 through a Bellari VP129 phono pre for about 1.5 months now, and the whole time I've noticed that the imaging in the trebble likes to shift to the right channel every now and then. The entire soundstage will sound evenly distributed until there is a part in the song with a lot of trebble (i.e. sibilance, cymbals, higher octaves of instruments, etc.) at which point the treble shifts slightly to the right. I've suspected that part of the cause might be that the table and tonearm itself are positioned slightly right of center, and I may be getting some "needle cross talk" (or whatever they call that). I may experiment by putting something in front of the turntable to see if that's the problem, but does anyone else have any ideas as to what may cause this?

Thanks
jwglista
newbee
4,809 posts
 
Couple of simple things - perhaps the tweeter on the right side is revealing the effect of reflections from surfaces around the right speaker that are not like the room reflections from the speaker on the left side. The first thing I would do is to simply reverse channels at the amp and see if your highs still shift to the right.

Is your listening position equal distance from each speaker and are you sitting dead center? If not carefully create that condition and see what happens.

You don't mention your electronic's but if you have tubes try reversing channels to insure that you don't have a 'hot' tube on the right side.

If all that is of no effect, time to carefully revisit TT set up issues, VTA, VTF, as well as anti-skate.

Hope that helps a bit.
jwglista OP
206 posts
 
Well I haven't noticed the issue when listening to CDs, which is why I'm suspecting the TT setup. I will try these suggestions to see if anything helps. Maybe it could be an issue with azimuth?

Thanks
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
I'm not saying it *is* azimuth in your case because there are so many variables, but azimuth isn't a bad place to start.

I had a similar problem, and when I got a headshell with azimuth alignment (for a Technics DD TT) and adjusted it, the channel balance and imaging snapped into place.
jwglista OP
206 posts
 
From what I've read in the manual for the MMF-5.1, adjusting the azimuth can be a pain. What is a "headshell?" Is that a particular tool for measuring azimuth? Cause I'm wondering how anyone could get it perfect without some kind of tool to tell you if it's out of adjustment...
chashmal
605 posts
 
I am certainly not an expert, but I have noticed profound imaging differences between digital and analogue. Analogue is (for the most part) deeper and more spacious in its effects. It sounds like your room is posing reflections off of surfaces that only the deep analogue imaging gets at. I have noticed this too, betwen my Meridian 24 bit CD and my Linn LP12, both are very good, but sound very very different. If I were you before I spent any $$$ I would simply play around with speaker placement and the furniture in the room, including pictures on the wall (beware of glass!)
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