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Speaker balance control

After 50 plus years and regardless of the amount of time, effort and money spent, I have finally ended up with the best sounding system I've ever been able to achieve. This combo of components was a matter of luck more than informed design but, be that as it may, I'm very happy with it and not likely to change anything at this point. The setup consists of Shanling S100 CD, Peachtree Nova as a preamp, Peachtree 220 amp and Martin Logan Odyssey speakers that I've had since new in 2003.

However, there is no balance control capability in the preamp and I'm battling with an issue of uneven volume between the two speakers. I realize that the speakers I have are very dependent on placement, rake and toe in, which I'm assuming may be related to the curvilinear transducers and the nature of dipole speakers in general. I've spent a lot of effort experimenting with this aspect of adjustment.

That being the case I still have been unable to achieve a volume balance between the two. I've switched the speakers left to right and right to left and have done the same with interconnects from the CD player and even switched speaker cables with no change; the sound balance perception remains significantly in favor of the right speaker.

What convinced me that the problem was not in the sound stream of the system occurred when I stood at my seating position with my back to the speakers and heard the sound still predominantly from the right. Others that I've had listen from my chair say the sound level seems balanced so it boils down to a deficit in my perception.

I'm getting up in years and have experienced some hearing loss, mostly diminishing above 5000Hz, and was fitted with hearing aids just to try solving this problem. This helps but I just can't get used to the unnatural listening associated with their use and haven't used them for any purpose for over a year.

Ok, I'm finally going to get to the point of this thread. Without a balance controller on my preamp, is there a way of attenuating the right side speaker volume to accommodate my hearing issue? I've even thought of installing a variable resistance device either as a line level controller between the CD player and the preamp or in the speaker wires themselves.

Otherwise, I can close my eyes and pretend that center stage is on the right side of my room.
128x128broadstone
chrshanl37
835 posts
 
I had a Peachtree Nova as a preamp for a few years and really enjoyed it. I also had at that time a dspeaker antimode 2.0 dac/preamp. When using these two together I found absolutely zero loss of resolution.

Aside from digital room correction It has basic tone controls, 16 band parametric eq, basic tone controls and balance adjustment.

The nice thing about the dspeaker is the digital output allowing you to use the dac in your Nova. They pop up used from time to time and might be worth investigating.

Best of luck.
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,765 posts
 
Try an in line attenuator. Parts express sells Harrison Labs that come in 3,6 and 12 db level of attenuation. You can give them a try and if they don't do the job you can always return them for a full refund. They come in pairs so you can double them up since you only need one channel.
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
758 posts
 
It sounds like a hearing issue - this happens to me/my system too. Better hearing aids might be the answer. They vary tremendously, and only the top-of-the-line models do anything much above 4Khz. They really aren't designed for music listening at all. Mine have 4 switchable, programmable eq curves, 2 of which are useful for music. Unfortunately, they cost c. $3K each.
kiddman
341 posts
 
My gosh it is so easy, if you don't want to move things as I suggested (and you will hear NO phase effects as suggested by others) then just use an inline attenuator. Attack problems with the simplest solutions first.
broadstone's avatar
broadstone OP
310 posts
 
Thanks again, Kiddman. I agree that attenuation does seem the best approach. What remains, then, is choosing the right way to achieve it. The Dspeaker, although kind of expensive, sounds like a good potential solution and, if it actually does everything that's claimed, it could help with my room acoustics as well. I'll start looking for a used one used through the several audio sites on line and will report back with the results.
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