Speaker Balance Question

Harry - the valves are for the pre-amp section, the output is solid state. This is the amp:

HTML:

http://www.pathosacoustics.com/indexeng.htm

)Pathos TT. I have got some spares and bidding on some vintage valves at the moment.

 

Back to my balance problem, if you dont mind...

1. Switched the ICs on the player, nothing changed, so it is not the player nor the ICs...

2. Switched the speaker cables on the amplifier, problem moved to the other channel, so it is not the speakers nor the speaker cables...

3. Switched small tubes on amplifier, nothing changed, so it is not the small tubes...

4. Switched power tubes on amplifier, nothing changed, so it is not the power tubes, nor bias setting...

The good news is that the problem is on the cheapest equipment, and probably the easiest to fix, as it is quite simple, and all discret components...

The bad news is that I have no clue what could be wrong...

 

Antonio - are there places in Riga where you can take the amp to be looked at? I would be interested to know what could potentially cause that in an amp, if it is not the valves.

Since I had the issue with the one valve deteriorating and causing a balance problem, I am now paranoid that it may not just be the valves. I sometimes hear something louder from one speaker and think "oh no" - but I think sometimes the recorded music is such that a particular instrument seems to be on the right or the left hand side. The vocals always seems to come from the centre.

 

With mine, sound always came more from the right, particularly noticeable with few players, trios for instance...

That was until I adjusted the balance, of course...

I dont speak the local language, people that dont deal much with foreigners dont speak English, I am studying Russian, but it is not yet enough, so, until it sounds bad, I will probably let it be...

 

Does anyone know of any way of measuring channel imbalance? I have a nagging suspicion that I may still have some even though I have changed tubes.

 

Try a mono recording. The sound should come from the centre of the space between your speakers.

 

Hmm can't say I've got any mono recordings - will try and download one

 

I think early Beatles and The Who recordings are mono.

 

For me it is easy, the Linn, beeing AV, has a test tone generator, to calibrate the speakers...

There are CDs for this purpose, I dont know if they are DVDs or PCM...

I did it by ear, left the sound meter in Portugal...