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Ever since I started really listening to a 2 channel audio system(40 years) I have often felt that the right channel was louder than the left. Sometimes it was true..such as a imbalance in the amp, I would switch speaker leads and the problem would reverse. However, sometimes the left side remains weaker to my ears. I have theorized that room dynamics were at play, etc. but now I wonder if my brain, hearing mechanism is involved. Friends have not noticed this as much as I. Anyone else have a similar experience?
"When the demon is at your door, in the mornin' it won't be there no more"
Steely Dan
Edits: 04/19/14Follow Ups:
I have found incorrect balance in the mastering of records a common problem.The positioning of speakers and room acoustics are never perfect.
Edits: 04/21/14
Could also be a synaesthetic effect - 'cause for myself I've discovered that especially when I listen via headphones in a very dimly lit room, an asymmetrically placed light source tends to drag my acoustic middle a bit toward the brighter side.
Greetings from Munich!
Manfred / lini
It's actually a psycho-acoustic phenomenon and related to the brain hemisphere in control of the corresponding (opposite) side of the body.
The left hemisphere controls auditory processing so your right ear (which is connected to the left hemisphere) in your case appears to be significantly more dominant which is why you notice the skew.
People with speech difficulties (stuttering)/dyslexia etc actually favour their left ear for processing auditory information and experiments have been done with singers where they were forced to monitor their voices with their left ear (whereas they naturally used their right ear). Apparently the result was that they had difficulty maintaining control over pitch.
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats
I have always been told I was left brained based on my personality....interesting.
"When the demon is at your door, in the mornin' it won't be there no more"
Steely Dan
I never felt that the imbalance I noticed (left channel consistently louder than the right) was amp or speaker related, but I did think it was a speaker placement issue (the room my system is in is "multipurpose" so ideal speaker placement is not possible); however, I discovered a number of years ago that like most folks my age (71 yrs. young) my inability to understand what people were saying was more related to my inability to discern high frequencies...that plus my tinnitus makes me thankful that I can still ear well enough to get by without a hearing aid...anyway, now when the imbalance of my system causes a problem a slight twist of the balance control fixes everything.
Raven
I recently discovered that my preamp was a little stronger on the right.. Switched in my intergrated amp and now am happy with the sound stage as long as my balance knob is one click's distance to the left!
Life is a glorious compromise!
"When the demon is at your door, in the mornin' it won't be there no more"
Steely Dan
A recent Beatles night reminded me how lopsided some recordings really are.
Rubber Soul-ouch! Abbey Road-why is everybody on the hard right?
Once in awhile Paul floats in the middle. Ringo's kit is stuffed way in the corner but pops into the left on songs. Panning guitars that settle to the right.
I even had to put a good mono record on to make sure my table/cart adjustments were okay.
A perfect time to have a good ol BALANCE knob like my 80's rig had
Or, does my system really suck and others don't hear some of the odd placements of things?
...and the mono button. Any set up without such features is just unacceptable.
-reub
The ears and the brain are amazing.
My left ear always was just a wee bit less sensitive than my right, and it showed up in audiology tests. Nothing serious.
Then, in 1994, I awoke with the sensation that my left ear was covered in a blanket. Turned out that cholesteatoma had mostly destroyed the bones of my middle ear and invaded the mastoid. It took more than one surgery to conquer the cholesteatoma. (As an aside, cholesteatoma is an interesting topic, but I won't attempt to explain here just what it is or why it happens, except it's sort of like zombie debris from ear infections.) In a third surgery, a metal implant took the place of the destroyed bones. HOWEVER, apparently there was nerve damage, because I mostly lost everything in the left ear below about 100 Hz and above about 7 kHz, and what was left was significantly attenuated.
You know what's weird? I can still hear and enjoy stereo, I can very much enjoy concerts and their spatial quirks, and I can still locate a mono "image" that seems just a few degrees to the right of center.
It's like my brain is doing a huge amount of signal processing without my conscious attention. It breaks down, though, if someone on my left side tries to speak quietly to me; I have to turn to hear. It breaks down, too, in noisy rooms where conversations far away are just as loud as conversations nearby. Then I just shut down.
At 60, I'm grateful that I don't need hearing aids yet.
I sat between twin 50's when I was 18 then years later worked in the forward engine room of a diesel electric fast attack (submarine) I wore ear protectors but the low fundamental vibes from those 278A supercharged Jimmy's literally shake out ones fillings as well as trashing the delicate ear mechanisms, but I still derive a great deal of musical enjoyment, despite not being consciously aware of a great deal of the harmonics, the VA rigged me up with nice digital hearing aids (I remeber freaking out from being able to hear my piss hitting water once nagain, and I also get a disability.
Methinks we most defiantly have inherent sensory error correct circuits
not unlike sitting too close to the screen at the cinema.
Regards Ferd
You might find it worthwhile to see an audiologist for a hearing test. When I had one I told the doctor that I'd probably show a slight dip in the upper frequencies for the left ear with normal response in the right. That is exactly what the test confirmed. That small dip is enough to make the sound of my system require a slight adjustment in the balance to get the soundstage right.
A year later I got fitted for musicians earplugs and found out that my left ear canal was narrower than my right. I don't know if that explains the response difference in my ears, but it might.
Ripple
...that's why it pays to have test instruments. They are more objective than you.
Definitely, I still go back and forth between thinking it's my amp/pre, speakers, ears, or the recordings. I know my left ear is weaker than my right, but still think it's the recordings for the most part, as some recordings sound completely balanced.
I have 30% hearing loss in my left ear, possibly from the trombone section always on my left....But I still enjoy my 2 channel system, slight imbalance doesn't bother me. Occasionally I switch right and left at the preamp or amp if a particular cartridge or recording seems to favor the right channel.
TR
I wonder if this may be the same phenomenon as "eye dominance"; I'm right handed but when I shoot a rifle or a bow, suddenly I'm left handed.
Likely it may be the way your brain is wired.
Happy (balanced) Listening!
DeeCee
Didn't take long to discover that my left ear is stronger than my right one :-)
...it's always been system/room dependent. Switching the leads, the volume difference does not follow. I have only noticed this at all in a handful of systems.
dh
I used to have the same feeling about my system. You can confirm channel balance by playing a mono recording and adjusting the balance control for a centered image. I did this using the dual volume controls on power my amplifier so that my preamplifier balance control remains centered. Then, if I ever hear an imbalance on a recording, I just use my preamp balance control to temporarily correct the situation. After all, not all recordings have perfect channel balance.
Good luck,
John Elison
Me to. Reversing speaker leads or turning my back will reverse the loud/soft channel.
I thought the right channel tweeter was fried until I turned around to select another record. It isn't the tweeter. It's my ears.
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