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Help with imaging

Hope you guys can help me with an extremely annoying problem I'm having. I'm very happy with my Soliloquy 5.3s but seem to have a hard time with vocals or instruments that should be centered...they seem to want to exist to the right of center. I can somewhat correct this by toeing in the right speaker more than the left(I tend to toe speakers in toward the listening spot), but this seems more like a bandaid than a real fix and doesn't fully correct the problem. Moving the right speaker back doesn't seem to help either. Here's the wierd part. When I switch the speakers I still get the same result. I would have expected the center image to shift to the left, but it still skews to the right. I've recently had other speakers in my system and don't have this problem, so I don't think it's the electronics. Also, this happens regardless of what room the speakers are in, so it doesn't appear to be just a room thing, and I've tried different cables as well to no avail.

This is driving me nuts, so I hope you guys have some thoughts or insights and your help is GREATLY appreciated.

Tim
soix
wywhcan
39 posts
 
Since switching the speakers doesn't change the skewed imaging, I'd guess that it may be environmental - i.e. bare wall on one side and sofa/absorving material on the other side. I've had the same problem and, by playing with the balance control of my pre/pro I was able to centre the image.
gregm
3,405 posts
 
Uncanny, as presented! Do you get this at all volume levels? Since U have switched speakers with identical results, it shouldn't come from the Sol's. Have U checked the right speaker's mid/tweaters' 1st reflection point vs the left? (but then, you've tried another room...) Anyway, if not, try dampening both reflection points identically -- try anything for starters (pillows... any absorbant matl).
Also, check out 1st reflection points on the ceiling. Finally, you may have one channel stronger than the other across the volume range -- or a phase inversion on one channel (unlikely).(but, again, you've tried other speakers).
Good luck!
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,593 posts
 
Hase you tried switching the left and right IC's back and forth? Other than the room the imbalance may come from the electronics or the cables (maybe just a poor or dirty connection if you are lucky). It looks like you have already rules out that it is the fault of the speakers. I recently had an off center image after playing around with a bunch of cabling, when a friend dropped by. I had originally though that I may have damaged a micro wire digital IC that I use, which is very fragile, but discovered after merely removing all of the cables, cleaning the contacts and reinstalling everything again, the sound was back to normal and I did nothing else. Hopefully you solution will be as easy.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,593 posts
 
PS: My center image was off even when I listened in the near field, so it was not a room problem.
ohlala
1,236 posts
 
If you have not already try switching(left/right) a pair of interconnect, and maybe speaker cable (with interconnect switched back to normal) in order to eliminate the question of an electronic phenomenon. If the sound is still leaning to the right and it is not too much trouble, try to make your room as symetrical as possible. I have also had this problem, and when I moved my computer monitor from one side of the desk to the other, the vocals settled in the middle. In any case, don't compare your 5.3's soundstaging with other speakers. Different speakers load rooms differently, and the other pair somehow may be more immune to your right side leaning. I have noticed this with my bookshelfs. They never had a problem with soundstaging, it was the floorstanders that required a little work. Good luck, I know that problem can get a little annoying.
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