Center image on left side and don't know why


Hi,

What should be the center image in my soundstage is on the left side. I've tried everything, swapped amps, speakers, cables, changed locations from long wall to short wall, and even had my ears cleaned, nothing works. It's really frustrating. Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help,

Pete
petewhitley
get the original test CD 1 from Chesky it has a image test track like described above it will tell you immediately what's right or wrong.
I noticed a similar problem with image when I first started getting into high end audio 20 years ago. I tried many things until I noticed the problem occured on all systems, including those in dealer showrooms. I tried moving the speaker to compensate for the offset image, but something about that approach does not seem right.

To make a long story short, I finally concluded that I have a slight hearing loss in my right ear. I can adjust the balance control to about 2 o'clock and the image centers fine. I did a fair amount of hunting in my younger days, and suspect this may have contributed to the loss in my right ear.

I am convinced that others people have a similar problem and do not know it. A high end system is so resolving that small losses are noticeable. Whenever someone comes to hear my system, I frequently start by playing something with a good center image (female vocal) and ask them to point to the singer. It does not happen often, but I have had people point to one side or the other. So I adjust the balance for them so they can hear what a true image sounds like.

Good luck.
Hii guys. I need your help. Similar problem I am encountering with both headphones as well as speaker system. Myself is a mix engineer for immersive. I mus audio in Dolby Atmos and therefore my ears should solely rely on telling me where sounds are located in space. My situation is even more complex and annoying than stereo systems that can be solved by moving slightly or tilting our heads but with surround systems we don't have that flexibilty as in stereo because Dolby Atmos has deal with sounds in 3d a mixer has a responsibility in panning sounds correctly and it is only that localisation concept which I have to heavily work upon when u craft my 3d music. 

When I am on my headphones I am unable to authentically author my content in Dolby Atmos in a fear of if I mix things wrongly just simply because my ears are not perfect. What happens is that every time centre image is slightly shitfted to the left side probably located inside my left eye ball kind of when I mixing content in Atmos or play demo content. Due to this even the whole surround image is impacting. When I wear headphones and watch a Dolby Atmos movie it's like I am wearing a virtual box around my head with sounds located above me behind me around me which is totally fine but the box itself is shifted to the left and I get a feeling that I am sitting off centre left side inside a cinema Hall ( an imagination). And this is true for real too as I go to a movie theatre even though I booking ny tickets middle row middle seat of always perceive sounds coming from left side intensively and is very frustrating. As a surround mix engineer facing this kind of perceptional problems is a night mare and curse to me and making me to leave my mixing profession all to get her. When I conducted ear doctor he again says my both ears are working fine but to me always it dosent work. I am afraid now. The only thing I came to know that big discovered my self is my both ears are not same in pinna canal design. I came to know this by putting my fore finger inserting into my left ear to see how depth I can plung thru and touch the surface but when I do same with the right ear I get a different sensation with touch like my right ear is not depth and hitting the pinna surface faster than left ear. And I also assume that I am having a minute apperture differences with my pinna canals in my ears. Therefore this could be a culprit. But again as far as audiology hearing test goes, I am not suffering from hearing issues like I can hear upto 18.2 khz both ears and I am 21 now currently. But it is only problems with the imaging.... So what can be your advice to me here. Should I forget all this and stop thinking that I have a defect or my brain is playing tricks on me??? 
The Sumiko Masterset speaker setup protocol would seem ideal to tackle this situation. You might not end up with a symmetrical speaker arrangement but it should sort the soundstage out.