Okay so the real question, when things move around like this how to tell if it is the recording or your system setup?
We get our sense of imaging from arrival times and also relative volume. When speakers are too close to reflective surfaces the reflected sound can reach us soon enough and with enough volume to make us think it came from the reflection not the source. Different speakers have different dispersion characteristics at different frequencies, and so do our room surfaces. Sorry it is such a big mess all we can do is explain, hopefully with enough detail you are able to find the answer yourself.
Pretend for a moment no one has this one recording but you. How would you know? One way is to listen for clues. If the recording has it there then it will be there with palpable presence. Every aspect of the instrument will appear to be there. Not just the high notes but the whole body of the instrument.
But what if your system isn’t up to that level of resolution? Well the next thing you can do is listen to the same recording in mono. This way you will know for certain everything should be front and center. Anything at all moves off to one side or another you will know it has to be due to setup. If you can’t play this one in mono there is always the XLO Test CD that has Michael Ruff playing Poor Boy in mono. Although honestly any mono record will do the trick. In mono everything should be all together in a sort of sphere. Anything moves around you know you got problems.
Out of phase is another similar test. With mono everything should seem to come from one location. Out of phase everything should seem to come from everywhere, and nowhere. Out of phase is crazy spooky weird with a really nicely setup system, the sound really does seem to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. By everywhere I mean including inside your head. Just the most mind-blowing thing. But again, only when really nicely setup! Anything out of sorts, anything at all, the sound will appear to be coming from somewhere and totally blow the effect.
Since you are able to hear the violin in certain definite locations then clearly it is not an out of phase situation. But it does seem to move around when probably it shouldn’t. So most likely you just need to review speaker setup paying close attention to absolute symmetry. Experiment with toe in. Having a lot of toe in is probably the easiest most likely fix. This will also improve whatever imaging you now have. Speakers pointed pretty much straight ahead are an open invitation to this kind of problem.
But maybe they already are toed in a lot, or more toe in doesn’t eliminate it. Then it is most likely a room reflection. Sound is probably coming off one speaker bouncing off a wall or something on its way to your ears. Look at the first reflection angles, try moving reflective things around or covering them up. All you can do. Situation normal, by the way. Happens all the time. Great systems never just appear by accident. Takes a lot of work just like this to make it happen.
