I had that same situation with a cadywompus sound stage. It was a bad RCA cable. After pulling what was left of my hair,I started replacing cables. I would agree with it being a bad speaker cable.
Position of speaker cables and irregular behavior
I move my speakers around a lot, experiment with placement, also move a few different sets in/out of rotation. Reason: I have a persistent problem in that my left speaker is dominant. Playing in mono the image is centered about 2 feet left of center. In stereo, not only are vocals shifted left, the right side just doesn’t carry the same level of volume , soundstage and depth.
Equipment: Bryston 7b monoblocks, Bryston pre, Opp BDP105, Grover Huffman Empress speaker cables, Siltech xlr interconnects.
I have swapped/reversed every single component to try isolating a culprit. No luck.
Although there are differences in left/right side walls in the room, the parts that matter ( reflection points ) are basically the same.
my speaker cables are 8ft so I have about 3-4 ft of excess. When I move the cables around it affects the dominance to either lessen or exaggerate to the left. Sometimes I get close to almost centering the image , when that happens the right side blooms open. But it lasts a few hours or days and then I’m back to playing with speaker and cable placement. I’ve suspended the cables off the floor , sometimes helps temporarily.
I have tried adjusting the balance on the preamp . that makes the volume equal but not the brilliance of music which remains duller on the right.
There are even times when I’m listening to a song and as I’m listening the image shifts either more to left or more to center. I thought it might be a sound pressure issue in my room, then I move the speaker cables and it gets better....for a while.
its not my hearing, when I attend audio exhibitions or meets the sound is equal.
I have moved my speaker cables so many times, like bending a wire hanger back and forth, they eventually broke. Grover huffman was kind enough to repair my speaker cables...twice.. Have some bending going on to fasten on binding posts.
I sprayed Deoxit on all connections, that didn’t make a difference.
i routed all power cords neatly and away from speaker cables.
I’m thinking of getting 4ft speaker cables so that I have a straight run. Otherwise I’m out of ideas.
any help?
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sorry, a little delay in getting back tot he nice folks that took time to offer help... I thought it best to be methodical in carrying out changes so I decided to start at back end. switch left/right speakers, then cables, and so on. first think I learned is that I am not as limber as I used to be, its a pain bending and doing things with 2 hands that could use 3 or 4. before touching anything I tried self testing my hearing so I listened to familiar music on headphones. image is balanced and centered. then I listened to my system warts and all as is, nearfield. then I turned around to listen with my back to the speakers. image, brightness and intensity is consistently skewed left. I don't think its my hearing. I physically switched L/R speaker positions. image still centered left. I physically switched L/R speaker cables. Image still centered left. tomorrow I will switch L/R monoblock amps followed by interconnects. ya know, this kinda stuff can drive a person crazy. when I moved the speakers I noticed the right (weak one) is a little wobbly, started turning the foot screws. I coulda sworn it made a little difference....then nah, just wishing.
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+1 for @ghdprentice |
- 31 posts total