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Post by musicman1806 on Jun 9, 2015 22:37:47 GMT
No this is not a philosophical question lol It seems like the more I listen to a variety of music through good source and headphone gear, the more I notice how often a singer is acutally panned just slightly off center in the stereo mix. Is it just me and am I crazy or is it a rarity to have a singer mixed dead center in a stereo mix ?
There are times when it is fairly obvious people are playing or singing in different parts of the audio field but when it gets really close to the center, it kind of makes me start to think something is out of balance.
Does anyone else experience this ?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2015 23:30:31 GMT
I get this all the time too. Usually seems to be just slighlty right of centre. Although things got seriouly disorienting when I bought some HE-560's with a very noticeable channel imbalance....I had vocals seemingly coming out of my nostrils and the room spinning.
For a while it really hampered my enjoyment of my headphones but over time I've learned to zone it out to some degree. Still not sure if it's down to the recordings or my hearing being shot, as I believe it's quite common for people to hear better in one ear than the other. Don't really notice it with speakers or in day-to-day life though.
So to answer your question. You're not mad....or if you are at least you are not alone. I'll let you be the judge of which until someone more knowledgeable comes along with a definitive answer!
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Post by musicman1806 on Jun 9, 2015 23:46:16 GMT
lol crazy or not at least im not the only one. At least speakers can be adjusted somewhat to deal with imaging. I know my issue is not headphone related because I switched the drivers on my HD600 and also plugged in some IEMs directly to the computer. It would be more comforting to know that some audio engineers did it to the music track as opposed to knowing my hearing is not balanced !
I wonder if a computer can have an audio channel imbalance...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2015 0:02:38 GMT
Yep, sounds like you've been round the houses with this too. Think I've replaced pretty much every part of the chain over the years so have ruled out equipment being the culprit. Switching cables is always inconclusive too as I tend to be looking for the problem to the point where my mind plays tricks on me. If I was serious about this I'd of course do some double blind A/B testing with precise volume matching or whatever any self-respecting 'audiophile' <cough> would do. Not a definitive answer but think there are at least enough of us to consider setting up a self help group: www.head-fi.org/t/590419/vocals-usually-more-on-the-right-side-than-leftFor now I'm going to blame it on the audio engineers. Should one surface and blame my hearing I'll probably not hear them anyway, so can continue to live in ignorance
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Jun 10, 2015 4:36:55 GMT
I would say take a recording. Use only the left channel and duplicate it to the right channel. Now you have a mono signal that should be dead center.
You can also increase (or decrease) the volume of one channel by 1 dB or so and listen to that. See where the image shifts to and you could determine where it comes from and how many dB it is.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2015 13:05:48 GMT
I suffered from this exact same problem throughout the 90's. Back then I didn't really use headphones so I spent an eternity making my living room symmetrical, lol. Nothing worked. My personal circumstances changed & hi-fi was a stranger for some time. I forgot all about it.
Then we moved house again & a better paying job meant I could get back into it. So I started assembling a nice system only for the imbalance problem to resurface. Around this time I realized my eyesight for reading was beginning to wane so I booked a free eye-test at my local Boots opticians. While I was there I was offered a hearing test so I took that too & bang! My hearing was deficient in my left ear.
The test itself doesn't target a central image as such but it does present different frequencies to different ears. The resulting plot meant that it couldn't just be a reduction in sensitivity to a specific frequency because that will only happen at either end of the frequency range & not the middle.
Anyway, I duly booked in to get my ears syringed at my local GP practice. Hey presto!
I now have 20 - 20 hearing. At least in the stereo sense. I now take much better care of my ears and the problem has never came back, touch wood.
Gordon.
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Post by musicman1806 on Jun 15, 2015 4:22:51 GMT
I took the drivers out again and switched them back and forth repeatedly, using only one reference song and viola ! It was the drivers after all. I sent the headphones in to Sennheiser to have the drivers replaced. This has been bothering me since they arrived two months ago (never happened before) so hopefully the new ones will be matched. Thankfully in the meantime I have a pair of RHA 750i IEMs that sound very nice.
My problem in trying to diagnose this problem previously was that I was switching too soon between different headphones and speakers for comparisons. One of the hd600 drivers had stronger bass slam and was a bit louder as well. This tended to make other headphones feel as if the other ear was more sensitive to hearing in general after the opposite ear grew accustomed to a higher noise decibel.
So in short, I should have used one headphone and one test track while switching my drivers. Oh hindsite is 20/20 , but vision is another story lol
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