Does this degrade sound?


I have an Adcom GFP 750 preamp and when I turn the balance all the way to one side there is still music coming out of the the other speaker. Same when I turn the balance other way. There is no complete silence of channel. It sounds good to me when I play it but would it sound better if the balance worked 100% instead of 80%? Thanks Mike
128x128blueranger
Elizabeth is correct. It depends on the design of the preamp as to how the balance control works.
Blueranger - Elizabeth is right about trusting Nelson Pass. He wouldn't make mistake like that (bleed through) .

Reason for limiting range is gain loss. Imagine that you have 100% balance adjustment. It means that each channel goes from 0-100% and therefore in center position it has 50% of loudness. Half of the loudness means about 30% of the signal. Full 0-100% balance adjustment would require additional gain of 3 in the circuit. Why to adjust whole range when it is not needed while smaller range gives more accurate adjustment and doesn't attenuate signal so much.