IMAGE PROBLEMS VOCALS OFF CENTER

The system was recently in a small bedroom and the problem became prevalent without me changing anything. One day, the image just seemed off a little. I thought it was wax build up or that my hearing was going. It seemed to come and go somewhat and I began to think that I had a problem with a tube in the Cayin TA-30 I was running. I moved the system into my newly designed room about 2 months ago and the problem persisted. I figured I would wait until all the traps were in place to make a judgement. Now that I have the traps just about completed, the problem seems more prevalent than ever. I have measured and re-measured distances between speakers and listener, ie. triangle (speakers approx. 9 feet apart and same distance to listening area. I guess it is possible that both amplifiers, the cayin and the arcam, could have the same problem. I highly doubt that.

The room is perfectly symmetrical in every way. Some angles designed accoustically but all symmetrical. The room only has a leather sofa, placed perfectly in the rear center and about 6 feet from rear wall. A nice large wool rug, once again, centered. All tubes have been switched, and, as I say, I have tried swapping the tube amp for a solid state. Same issue. This problem was also prevalent in the smaller bed room where I had the system until 2 months ago. Could wiring induce interference that may cause this?

I can sympathize with you on this one, in my case totally room related. It could be the volume pot on your preamp (or amp, cd player, etc.) mistracking, it seems you've checked everything else. Otherwise it sounds like room or speaker postioning.

A preamp or linestage with a balance control is the ticket. I go through the same thing with tube variables, recordings, and all the other things can can screw your day. The equipment designers that leave off balance controls in the interest of purity are mad.

Another method you might try is called Masters. Sumiko has some dealers who are trained for speaker placement that matches their placement in the room according to equal pressurization. Rod Tompson at Soundings in Denver is rather adept at this.

Shadorne wrote

"If you have swapped interconnects (between source and power amp) and you have (in a separate test) swapped speakers with their respective cables (left channel to right side and right channel to left side) then you have eliminated your system as the source of the problem."

So did you ever swap the speaker connections so that the left output of the amp is driving the right speaker and the right output of the amp is driving the left speaker ?
I didn't see an answer to this question, and in my opinion it is the key question.