IMAGE PROBLEMS VOCALS OFF CENTER

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?

HOw much closer together?

I don't have a head phone jack.

Having a hearing test today. If that turns out okay then the next step is to take my system to a friends house on Sunday.

Hearing test came back perfect.
Thank God

It first changed when I replaced a set of Type 4 Cables with Nordost. However, I have tried switching the speaker cables back and forth and other types. No change.

I have tried using both. The speakers are Quad 12Ls, Cayin TA 30, Also tried an Arcam Delta 90 I believe, NAD CD Player, Nordost and Audioquest speaker cables and interconnects. The image is off slightly with everything, DVD, CD, and even television broadcast. I'm lost.

I am now pretty certain that it is indeed a volume issue. Not room related. I started playing with the volume knob and very slowy began to turn it clockwise. The right speakers begins to have sound coming from it before the left channel. I guess that probably means that the right speaker is slightly louder than the left, therefore causing the image to shift sligtly to the right of center. How would someone fix this problem???

I don't have a separate pre. (will soon) I have a Cayin TA-30 Tube Amp.

Tried all of your suggestions, no change, vocals still off slightly to the right in all instances. Tried an Arcam Delta 290 tonight in place of the Cayin and image was perfectly centered. Definitely an amp issue. Tried moving the power and pre amp tubes around. No change.

Thanks everyone for your input and responses. I am sure it was informative for anyone with image issues.

I finished all the traps in my room and have added just about all the diffusion panels and tubing etc. IMAGE IS DEAD ON. Vocals are now right where they should be. I can't figure out why everything has popped into place, but it has. Those of you who guessed it was a room issue must have been correct.

I am guessing that I was experiencing reflections fromt the speakers. That must have been the issue.

Thanks again for the many suggestions and opinions. It is nice to know that there is help for any of these issues.

Randy

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.

Okay, here goes, for anybody still interested that is.
I initially thought that I had this problem solved. Swapped amplifiers. Tried an Arcam Delta 290 and the vocals were perfectly centered. I was happy, this issue had dissappeared. I was getting ready to drop my tube amp off the house.

NOT SO!!! Just realized the other night that the balance knob, (I wasn't even aware the Arcam had one), was turned a quarter turn toward the left. That of course caused the image problem to be compensated and to now become dead center. I'm not amused!!!

Sooooo, I called two of my friends. One guy relatively new to the world of audio and the other as experienced as one can get in this area. I tested both of them by asking where they heard the vocals. Both stated slightly to the right of center. I tried this using my Tube Amp first. THen, I switched to the Arcam. I first turned the balance to the left to make the image appear centered. I called the lads back into the room and sure enough, both thought the image sounded dead center. I then thanked God that it was not my hearing. I then tried all of this with an additional Classe CAP 151. Once again, same issue. I measured all distances from seating area to the tweeters. Perfect triangle. All distances the same from all walls, (which by the way are perfectly symmetrical.) Then I switched the speakers, (placed the left speaker on the right and vice versa), Same problem. Then I swiched the cables, including interconnects. Same problem. Then I switched the interconnects, (left channel to right channel and vice versa) same problem. Then I switched the power cord, same problem. I tried using a dvd player in place of the cd player, no change. I tried listening to a movie with just vocals and speech, same problem, vocals off to the right of center.

The only thing left is to take all of the gear apart, remove it from the room and to introduce each piece back into the room. I could also try bringing an entirely complete and different system into my room and listening for the problem on that system.

Could something be causing some sort of interference?

Could this be an electrical issue?

The room is not an issue (for those of you thinking this) because the problem was happening in a small bedroom upstairs before I moved my gear into this dedicated and archetecturally designed and engineered room. The room is essentially a room within a room. All walls are drywall on two by four. Nothing special or unique. All bass traps and diffusion is symmetrical in the room. Also, the issue was present before I moved into the room, but I figured it was just that room. Now, I am in a professionaly designed room and the issue is still present.

My contact person who designed the room has asked me to wait until all diffusion and traps are finished before trying to assess for this problem, but I am just so baffled by this.

Hopeless!!!!

Anyone know an exorcist??????????