Do you ever use the balance on your pre amp?


I haven't had a balance control in ages. Since I moved (1.5years ago) my new crib has posed some major changes. Anyway, I found that the vocals on just about every recording were slightly off center, but enough to bug me. I new it was because of the set-up of my speakers in relation to the side walls. One speaker being near a side wall and one having no side wall. Anyway, my new pre amp has a balance control that I never thought to even look for. I know it's crazy. Anyway, today I'm listening to my tunes and after discovering the balance I centered my vocals. Not only is the centered vocal oh so palpable and visceral, but the entire soundscape. Whattayaknow...Any of you guys relate to my experience. Pre alzheimmers experience, as well...lol...
128x128warrenh

Showing 3 responses by eldartford

One advantage of having a center speaker is that center sounds (particularly vocals) are properly located without need for ultra-precise gain matching of 2 channel signals.
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Aball...On those recordings, perhaps the sound image that you seek to center is not supposed to be centered. Good speakers will produce a "soundstage" with instruments located anywhere between the speakers, and sometimes beyond. But image location has more to do with time-of-arrival than SPL, so trying to move an image by gain control (balance) is not the greatest idea.

The balance control is very useful to obtain equal gains in your electronics, as opposed to what is on the recording. The method is to play a mono source and listen to a speaker or headset bridged across your stereo amp. Adjust the balance control for a null (silence). You will probably find that perfect silence cannot be achieved until frequency response of the two channels is also tweeked with an equalizer or tone controls. I did a lot of this stuff when I tinkered with various matrix multichannel schemes.
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Aball...Since you realize that "some parts of the soundstage will be off center" it should not surprise you that not all lead vocals are centered (although most are). Performers sometimes wander around the stage while singing, and a good audio system will reveal that.

Of course you have my permission to twist the balance control any way you like :-) I do a similar thing with my multichannel system when the soloist, particularly a solo instrument in a classical piece, is mixed too loud so that if the instrument is at a proper volume the orchestra is too soft. I reduce the center channel gain.