Meantime it’s probably the room acoustics. |
This is what a balance control is for. The best systems frequently require tweaking the balance from one recording to another. Do not swap channels! If it bothers you that much change cartridges. I suspect you have a confluence of errors going on. Something else besides the cartridge is left leaning. Like chakster recommends, a test record will adjust your system to dead center as a starting point. Unfortunately, this does not account for variance in recordings so, it is best to learn to adjust it by ear. I want to hear the same amount of energy coming from both channels. This is different than getting the singer dead center although the singer usually winds up there. Where does the balance sound best to you? You can go back and forth until you find the best spot. But, you have to do this at the listening position so a remote control is mandatory. Running back and forth to the preamp is a PITA. |
I think it's absolutely crazy thread, sorry.
-Use MONO record to check the imbalance.
-Make sure to buy TEST LP for stereo test (it will help you to understand what's going on).
-Use different stereo LPs to make sure what you're hearing.
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@pragmasi Yeah I was only swapping the cart wires to see if the imbalance changed. Not intending to leave it that way. |
Might be worth trying your TT on a friend's system or at a dealer's to see if it is the source of the problem... the imbalance is unlikely to be affected by the cartridge connectors so probably best to leave those as intended. |
@pragmasis I spoke too soon. The imbalance is still there but it’s on the right side now. I think after listening to the left leaning sound for so long it just seemed more balanced when swapped. I have since swapped the phono inputs back and will continue to trouble shoot. I swapped the red and white cartridge connectors and got a low hum but it sounded pretty good. I didn’t listen for very long because it was late at night and didn’t want to wake the neighbors. Regarding anti skate, I don’t think I can adjust this. I’m running the Clearaudio concept table with magnetic bering tone arm.
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If you want to get to the root of the problem then probably best to follow the suggestions for anti-skate and cartridge setup first. If you don't mind the reversal of left / right channels then that's fine and will result in no other undesirable artefacts. The bit I don't get is that swapping L/R channels results in a better balance, you'd think it would just be out of balance in reverse. Are you aware of phasing, absolute polarity and channel orientation? In order to change the phase you'd need to reverse the connections at one end of the RCA connector... I don't think anyone suggested that. Polarity is just phase referenced around 180 ˚ steps, so that won't be a problem either. Channel orientation will of course be affected (unless the outputs of the pre are swapped as per @russ69's suggestion). Final thing... is it just your TT that sounds out of balance? Left/Right tracking on potentiometers is pretty poor and changes with the volume setting so if other sources are out of balance and you have a potentiometer for a volume control it might be worth checking that as well. |
@chakster I believe @russ69 is talking about phase inversion. If done in even numbers it balances out
IE Conrad Johnson preamps are phase inverted. To get back to phase, you invert the phase at the speakers, R to L & L to R. CJ covers it nicely in their manual.
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visual check azimuth . if your using headshell there is a slight slack that you can manipulate
learn to properly set antiskate.in general too much antiskate left becomes thin. in general our daily LP are only using 30 to 40 percent modulation. thus.. it's also more correct to set only about that much anti skate. 30 percent of the total vtf. test LP have more modulation.. thus.... easily get confused.
read up peter of soundsmith article and YouTube. his info is spot on.
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@paulgardner, So I’ve been having a slight channel imbalance for awhile now. If your phono stage has tubes start the checking from there, if not try to realign your cartridge. |
Yes if you swap one cable, left goes to right and right goes to left, but if you switch two sets of cables. you are back to the proper side but using the opposite side of the amp or preamp. There are no rules for using the left side channel of an amp to run the right side signal to the right hand speaker. Not sure what are you trying to explain to me. Are you aware of phasing, absolute polarity and channel orientation? We must listen music just like it was recorded, if you play music in the iPhone (it has two speaker now) you can rotate the iPhone 180 degree (for example), but only one position is right (true to the source) in stereo recording. If the OP prefer to listen his system virtually rotated 180 degree that’s not right! There is a right and left speaker in the mastering studio when musicians recorded, left is always left and right is always right. Same on the cutting head. You must listen to the stereo sound exactly how it was recorded (picket up by the microphones in the studio). You can’t change position of the musicians, if you will do that by swapping L and R channel cable you will ruin everything. You can swap disconnected L and R speakers - it doesn't matter, but if you swap connected speaker then you must swap cable ends on the amp terminals too. |
It’s the cart. Balance the channels with your phono pre. If you can not live with it.
My 7 carts natively ange from -0.6 to +1.1.
All .05 now. |
"...You can swap whatever you want, but if you’re listening to a stereo source then your Left speaker is L channel and your right speaker is R channel..."
Yes if you swap one cable, left goes to right and right goes to left, but if you switch two sets of cables. you are back to the proper side but using the opposite side of the amp or preamp. There are no rules for using the left side channel of an amp to run the right side signal to the right hand speaker. |
even if I do find phase or polarity problems, how would I go about adjusting those?
Your cables have color code, equipment have L/R marks and color code, cartridge pins have color code too. If you made a mistake once then everything else is wrong, you must find where you made a mistake (check all cables in your system). |
So I’ve been having a slight channel imbalance for awhile now. Vocal tend to lean left and just overall left leaning gain. Some records recorded this way I swapped the L&R input on the phono preamp and it sounds way more balanced.
If you prefer to hear vocal on opposite side how do you know how it was recorded ? You can prefer what you're hearing on one particular record, but how about some other records ? You need a MONO record to check your system for imbalance. Mono signal is equal in both channels. Play MONO LP and try to detect imbalance. Also compare with digital source |
@chakster even if I do find phase or polarity problems, how would I go about adjusting those? |
You can swap whatever you want, but if you’re listening to a stereo source then your Left speaker is L channel and your right speaker is R channel, just like on the master. There is a simple test on any test record, the voice recorded on LP will tell you which channel it is originally, and if the voice appeared from the wrong channel then you must swap cables L R channels.
There is also phase and out of phase test, in polarity and out of polarity test.
Those TEST records are made for system adjustment.
If you want to know what's right and wrong USE A TEST RECORD!
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"...There is only one right position for all cables in your system..."
No you can swap two sets of cables and get back to normal stereo. You can swap phono pre and pre or pre and amp, etc. |
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You need a Test Record to check channel orientations, phase and polarity. Look for Cardas Test LP or Hi-Hi News Test LP.
There is only one right position for all cables in your system from cartridge lead wires to your speaker cables. You have to check all of them using a test record! |
Yeah that’s what I suspect after doing some research. Does having the L&R inputs swapped doing anything to the sound quality? Thanks for the reply!
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No harm leaving it!
A possible cause is antiskate. Antiskate is used to counter the force which is pulling the tonearm to the center of the record. Too much or too low antiskate will cause the stylus to ride one side of the groove more than the other, which will cause channel Imbalance.
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