I had the same problem that Luna had and It drove me nut: Some LPs and CDs OF THE SAME MATERIAL exhibit dissimilarity in center imaging (My digital front end was Ayre C5xe). I re-set up my turntable starting from realign cartridges, played around with VTF, Anti-skating, VTA, Azimuth, changing cartridges (including Sumiko Blackbird, Koetsu Urushi, Cardas Heart, Lyra Helikon), arms (Triplanar, SME IV.Vi, Origin Live Conqueror, Graham Phantom), tables (Avid Acutus, SME 20/2), cables then played around with speaker set up, even changed amps (BAT VK-75SE, BAT VK-150SE, Cary CAD-211AE) and preamp. Some of the components made the problem more or less obvious, but none of the above solved it.
I consulted with many experienced people (including Michael Fremer, Wally and respectable dealer such as The Analog Room (where the Wavestream phonostage is from). While some of them experienced the same situation, none could give a definite explanation.
I also took these discs and played them on my friends systems with the same results.
While most of my MONO and many Stereo LPs can be dead center, In most cases, my LPs and CDs (of the same material) do not sound similarly in term of center image, and CD seems to have less of a problem.
I then drew a conclusion that my analog system (or systems) were just playing what was embedded in the groove. HOW and WHY the information in the groove does not conjure up the same center image as the CDs do, I have no idea. It could be the LP manufacture process is more prone to imperfection which in turn effect the original signal in such a way, or could be the way LP or CD mastered is different?, The list could go on and on..
But i came to accept that it's not my system's fault.
****I do not mind when the "center image" (meaning the soloist or singer) is not center, as long as that is the intention of the recording/ mixing engineer. But the same material (same source) sounds different on CD and LP (different formats) in term of balance...that bugs the heck out of me..must be something not right going on !!! ******
Regarding Azimuth, I do not believe that it has an effect on making an image centered or not. It helps the images to get into focus, but not to an extend to move them that much.
I do use anti-skating, but just enough to keep both channels from mistrack as much as possible. Because the inward skating force is ALWAYS there once the offset headshell that carries the cartridge hits the groove, I feel it 's better to compensate for it as much (and balanced) as possible than rather than doing nothing at all and let the L groove wall subjected to more force than the R wall constantly.
In my experience, Anti-skating has very little effect on output balance and how center an image is. It rather just depicts how clean (less distortion due to tracking error) the sound is. I would LOVE to be successful in using anti skating like "a balance knob" as some mentioned above !
These based on my limit experience. I' d love to hear more inputs so i can learn more.
