Yeah, the Arcade Fire's "We" (up on the wall) has the same problem (on vinyl). Vocalists and snares off to the left, closer to above the turntable, rather than above the amp, which is dead center. Through Apple Music (via the DAC), they're centered.
I've got some MONO records and an old test disc... Thanks for the recommendation. As for the OCD, I hear you... I've unfortunately trained my ears to a certain level of fidelity and can't regress.
Time to update the ol' profile, then. What I do is I play a mono record that I record through Audacity on my PC and then compare channel volumes. My guess is your L channel is stronger than the R channel on your current setup which is what is causing the imbalance. For it to be that pronounced, I'd estimate you'd have to be off by a lot, maybe close to 3db. Doing this test would basically confirm there's an issue with your setup. That's when you pick up the phone and call a tech to perform a setup and confirm via his laptop that the channels are properly balanced. After that, if there's an instrument or vocal that is slightly to the left, that is because that's what's on the record. As for your listening position, I assumed what we're seeing is slightly distorted by angles, lighting, or the lens of the camera. A basic requirement would be a symmetrical distance on each side - otherwise, you're setting yourself up for failure, imaging-wise.
The speakers are Gershman Acoustics SONOGRAMs. They're a small boutique manufacturer here in Ontario that only deal in the higher end these days. Got these used for a song and they're really nice and full range.
Thanks, time to bust out my copy of "Otis Blue" and a measuring tape! Think I have some MONO Hendrix around here somewhere, too. Good excuse for playing some awesome records!
Good luck man! Let us know what you find. PS: My lovely wife got me a nice Frank Sinatra double album with some in mono, altho I presume it was cut with a stereo cutter? Being a new compilation album. In any case those tracks are dead center, and don’t change at all when I press the mono button on my preamp remote.
I can say that imagining changes per vinyl. If especially different with CDs. I don't know if anything is wrong.
Got another cartridge to test out? Channel balance is a spec with carts. Coil voltage strength for each channel or something like that. The phono section too.
This sounds like more busy-work for you, but since you thought to draw us a venn diagram to illustrate it, tells me you're serious. Any chance you can borrow a phono stage from somebody, maybe a local dealer? Hook the table into the stage, stage into an aux somewhere. Now take note of where the soundstage center seems to hover. Compare. It might just be the innards in your phono input. Of course even if a CD and an LP are using the same album master, it could be internal mismatching of what the amp is presenting. I suspect, as long as you at least come to a conclusion about where the issue is...it might just not bother you as much so long as you've located the difference.
I've actually had to do something similar with left/right off balance issues with music CD's listening on headphones and on my home system. I load the song in question in Audacity and pick a section of the song where center vocals are slightly to the left (measuring using Wave Stats). And funny enough your 3db off center is exactly what I boost on the right channel using a limiter to center vocals. Works perfect. Vinyl is not going to be that easy enough to fix I'ld imagine. Sounds like something electronic as others here more knowledgeable on the subject have indicated. My old '72 Sansui amp gives me left right off balances even with CD's to where I just use the L/R balance knob and crank it up a bit to compensate. Don't have vinyl, just CD's but I do have a bit of OCD about getting the vocals centered. It's just annoying especially when everything else sounds so good but the balance is off.
Does your pre-amp have a volume pot or is volume digitally or resistor controlled? Is the off centre more pronounced at lower volumes? The balance of some pots is worse than others at low volume. When powered off give the volume knob a few rotations.
Oh it's obvious, the red circle is closest to your turntable, you're picking up some noise from the cartridge and it's just enough to move the image. You should take down the pictures, move the turntable out of the soundstage, change your socks to darker ones, upgrade everything, get a cat.
MONO SUCCESS!! I feel like such a dork, but it looks like it was just the speaker positioning... Good ol' measuring tape showed they were 11' 5" inches apart (measured from center of cabinets), while my listening position was closer to 10'. Adjusted their distance to 10' apart then toed them in appropriately and I'm getting a much clearer picture of Otis (& Jimmy) in the middle of the soundstage. Could probably still use a bit of further tweaking on the toe-in, etc. but I'll play with it. The cart could likely still use a good alignment, so I'll head to the local record shop here in Ottawa and ask around.
All well and good, but this doesn’t explain why your digital source created a centered image with the prior set up
Yeah, that's puzzling... Maybe something to do with the analog rig being more revealing than an Apple Lossles (not Hi-Res lossless) mix? I've switched back to stereo (the new St. Vincent just came out today!!!) and she's centered.
