Out of Balance

So this morning I loaded a Mozart trio CD to go with my morning cup of joe.  Immediately I noted the piano and violin pushed way to the left and the cello dead center.  Unlistenable!  While I virtually never used tone or balance controls, a did this time.  A quick turn of the balance control and all the instruments now floated in space perfectly positioned (at least in my mind). 

Made my wonder did the sound engineer suffer from unilateral hearing loss!  Hard to imagine a wonderful performance would be ruined by such careless balancing.  I have had this happen with a few other CD's.

Just wondering how often other members have had this happen and did it bug you as much as it does me.