L/R balance

Hmm, I have been pretending I can't notice but there really is an imbalance L/R (biased to L) when listening to vinyl. I had excused this through strings being biased to the left in an orchestral piece for example. But it would'nt be engineered like that, would it? anyway, I noticed it when I listened to Rush Caress of Steel this evening.

So is it setup?
rack is level, TT is level, platter is level.
Cart is securely fixed and appears level to the eye
I have a balance and the tracking force is 2g (middle of the 1.8 - 2.2g recommended for the DV 10x5)
I have played with VTA, not very scientifically I admit but there comes a point where the stylus will go no lower because I have the tonearm pulled so high and all sounds reasonable even with the tonearm right at the bottom of its travel.
I have used the specific protractor for my arm

Whats left? should I suspect the cart? I did buy it s/h, without hearing it....

Any thoughts?

 

Probably the cartridge, either poor QC or the generator azimuth isn't quite right.
If your tonearm head has adjustable azimuth you could try tweaking that, otherwise there is little you can do.

 

you don't mention deck or arm ...?

yes bit of a bug bear that used to affect my listening too !

have you played with the bias compensation ...antiskate ? setting if you have any

this should be set to approx the same lateral pull as the downforce ...

When I used to play with my TT vta [before I got rid] with the arm low at the pivot [tipping the cart up at the front gave a dull treble light presentation...with the pivot end high the presentation was bass light ...

are you hearing this ?

have you pluged and unpluged
the phono and cart connections and or cleaned them ....this may effect the very low signal the cart is outputing

 

If it's any consolation I get exactly the same effect and have done through changes of cartridge, phono stage, amp, cables , speakers etc. etc. It's either the room and furnishings or probably just me and my lugs. On another forum a guy mentioned that when he had his lugs flushed out there had been more gunge in one than in the other - maybe that's it. Anyone know of a good DIY hearing test ?

 

Zanash, Thanks for this. I'll have a play later. Thanks to other posts too.

For reference, the arm is a Basik Plus (so not much adjustment? unless I am missing something?) The TT a Systemdek IIX - no mods.

I have considered whether its just me but I'm afraid the balance is spot on with CD input! so no excuses there...

I will check the signal path too, logical starting point!

Hope to post later.

Regards,

Andrew

 

Quite possibly cartridge azimuth, as previously mentioned.

Try placing a thin shim on one side of the cartridge base (where it meets the headshell) to change the azimuth angle a tad and see if that makes any difference.

 

try winding the anti skate off on the basic ......then listen to all the possible settings in small increments ...

the basic arm has a spring system that pulls the arm one way if this is not working correctly then you will hear a chanel imbalance ...

if adjusting this you get no joy ..then you may be reduced to altering the balance at the amp end ...

I only solved this by getting a better arm .... firstly a standard helius which had an adjustable counter weight a la sme and then a logic datum S ..which used a spring system but was very well made ..

 

got any mono recordings you can try?

 

Zanash,
Altering things at the amp end ? My Sugden amp has no balance control - can an amp be slugged in other ways ?

 

well..... you can add slight attenuation on the dominante signal ...though this could be more problematic than solving the imbalance at the cart end ....

there are a couple of people on ebay making good attenuators could be worth a chat ...

but you eed to know how much extra the dominant channel is supplying ... not an easy thing either ..

From experience ...I'd see if I could try a better arm . this will as previous contributers have mentioned , hold the cart in a better position .

If you have a digital multi meter you can test the resistance of the various cable connections ...if any are found to be anomalous this could be causing the problem ...

oh yes try swapping the cart pins to switch the chanel from left to right [if you have not already ] does the imbalance move to the other side ?

You know Dave W in Derby don't you ? give him a buzz as he is still into vynl and might be able to offer you other suggestions .

 

The arm is an Ittok LVIII and has been to Glasgow to be rewired and checked over by J7. I tend to think it's the room and/or my seat too near the wall behind but a divorce is not in my plans for now. Tell you one thing, my next amp will have a balance control just as my next car will have a/c. Dream on.

 

Thanks for all the posts - I've done it! FAR better than any previous attempts and the result is simply amazing. Now working my way through all my recent aquisitions and revisiting albums that did not come to life in the way I had expected.

In the end, I did all the checks as recommended, then checked azimuth with a good light and hand lens (10x magnification) and used a combination of eye and ear to arrive at what is a truly incredible result! The cartridge appears to be at a funny angle on the tonearm, but who cares?

I will probably look to upgrade the whole TT & arm next year (got a big tax bill to pay in January) with a particular penchant for Michell gear (visually at least!)

I will enjoy the usual 2 week aural honeymoon period!

Thanks again to those who shared their thoughts on this matter. I'm glad I did not have to resort to shimming for azimuth!

Regards,

Andrew

 

I'm new here, so please excuse my ignorance. I have found this thread to be quite interesting as I have had problems with the channel balance of analogue in the past. Can you describe for me the way that you adjusted the azimuth, in this instance? Does your arm have a detachable head shell? If not, how were you able to adjust azimuth without wedging/shimming the cartridge body?
Thanks

Neil M.

 

I'd also like to know how this was achieved.
Andrew

 

Firstly, sorry for missing the 3.11 post! There is no mystery about the azimuth- I simply didn't need to adjust it. I think I had got so boggeddown with a practical set up based on measurements that I had moved away from eyes and ears! In the end I very slightly slackened the cartridge fixing screws and rotated the body clockwise on the head. Each adjustment was critically assessed by playing the same track (or part of THE track if you want to be pedantic) on a mono recording. For completeness, this was a modern jazz quartet album I have had since I was about 12 and was bought a Dansette from a jumble sale. Once the balance had returned, I used a mirror a d hand lens (10x mag) to assess the vta. Armed with my cartridge balance I was confident that all is well on the Soloist TT. Still ploughing through old favourites and some of my new charity shop aquisitions. Great!

 

Thanks, and congratulations. I see you've still got the TT and arm I sold you - not upgrading yet then?
Andrew

 

TT will wait. Speakers next. At some point I will post where I am up to with this. A five figure tax bill in January has put the brakes on th soloist upgrade budget!