Shifting center image and recommendations on an approach
I am a relatively new member of Audiogon and this is my first post. I apologize for the length of this. I’ll get better in the future. I’ve had the same system for many years and recently upgraded old Dynaudio speakers to Focal Aria 936. I’ve had them for two months and have struggled mightily with placement. For context, I have a Rotel pre-amp and amp (both older) and a Bluesound streamer. I also have an off-brand integrated tube amp (Yaqin).
I continually experience a shifting center image. It is primarily skewed more to the right. I’ve used the usual test songs such as Ballad of a Runaway Horse (as well as others, including 3 people Describing Position On Sound Stage in Stereo). The strange thing is that I hear the center image shift over to different positions across different listening sessions. I’ll adjust the speakers slightly to regain a center image, come back and it will be back to right or left. I eliminated the speakers as the problem by hooking up my old Dynaudio’s and experienced the same condition. I switched outputs on the pre-amp, also resulting in the same condition.
Well, today, I hooked up my integrated tube amp and I no longer experience the problem. Image is center and overall soundstage is good. So, it would seem to be a problem with my old Rotel pre-amp. Apparently, I must have been dealing with this for a long time and only became aware of it once purchasing new speakers and being more intentional about the soundstage. Ironically, I don’t hear a significant difference between my Dynaudio and Focals – I’m comparing each at this point.
Here’s my question (sorry!). Have others experienced a similar situation and how did you resolve it? And, I’m interested in opinions regarding returning the Focals (I’m within the period to do so) and getting a better integrated amp OR keep the Focals, knowing down the road, I’ll upgrade the integrated amp, thereby (hopefully) realizing the greater potential of the Focals?
Thanks very much in advance
@hazeloop I used to have shifting center image with my stereo as well. Turn out, the culprit was my Chord Qutest DAC. Once I upgraded my DAC to a more expensive R2R DAC, the center image became more solid and was no longer shifting to the right. Later on, I added room correction into my system using "House Curve", and the center image become way better. |
My room is similar in size / layout to yours. Looks great by the way! I currently have a set of Focal 948's which were difficult for me to find the ideal placement for best soundstage and center imaging. After hours of adjustments I found that 1-2" made a big difference. For me I ended up using a laser pointer and if sitting in my listening chair I would have the right speaker's dead center pointed at my left shoulder, and the left speaker dead center pointed at my right shoulder. This worked well for me. I also noticed that center imaging quality does change (sometimes quite a bit) from one track to the next depending on how well it was originally recorded or engineered, so finding a good track to play over and over with good center imaging is a good way to keep the adjustments consistent. I will also 2nd what others are saying about room treatment, maybe move the bookshelf if you can to have equal effect on each side of the room. I found that my Focals sound best when they are a full 3 feet off the front and side walls. Happy Listening! |
@carzmaguy88 - Thanks for your response. I am completely with you on the placement of the speakers. It is driving me nuts. Focal actually provided the following recommendations which seem to contradict each other -
I use it as a guide, but listening is more important (obviously). My current placement is 42" from front wall on both speakers and 31" from left wall and 29" from the right wall. I have a window on the left side and bookshelf (built in) to contend with on the right side. Do I read your placement correct that there is significant toe-in to your listening position? Some recording have better soundstage (center, width and depth) than others. I feel I am becoming a snob and focusing only on music that sounds good, which is a problem. Older recordings (vinyl or streaming) that I really like don't sound as good. I need to get over that... Thanks again ! |
