Balance Control on amplifiers - What is their purpose?

Mono obviates the need of course!

ATB from George

Or if you are slightly deaf in one ear. I play in a rock band, standing most of the time to the left of the drummer. So hearing in my right ear is a little damaged now.

Adam Zielinski posted:

Or if you are slightly deaf in one ear. I play in a rock band, standing most of the time to the left of the drummer. So hearing in my right ear is a little damaged now.

Czesc Adam!

Does that mean you play your music via HiFi a little louder?   I use to go to many rock concerts and remember the music or noise ringing in my ears a long time afterwards.  My wife and daughter laugh at me as I tend to play my music a little louder then is the norm ( as I understand it), but I always listened to music slightly louder from teenage years.

Cześć

It does, actually - especially with NAIM gear - it simply sounds much better when it's played a bit louder than a norm (who cares about the norms anyway?)

What became a saviour for me (or actually my hearing) are in-ear monitors - use them only for playing gigs. So unfortunately during rehearsals my ears are still subject of abuse from my long-term friend / drummer.

Rooms are almost always asymmetric, with reflections stronger on one side versus the other. Also, speaker drivers are sometimes less than perfectly matched.  Lastly, not all recordings are perfectly matched between left and right channels.

I use my 552's control on a pretty regular basis to dial in a perfectly centered and balanced sound.  Works very well, and only takes a few seconds.

ATB.

Hook

Every listening room I have used down the years has given an asymmetric sound balance. It's just one of those things.  Some rooms do and some don't. Easily overcome by accurate speaker positioning, although their placement may look odd. I find a balance control works just as well. I am also now harder of hearing in one ear, Not by much but it all stacks up.

Hook posted:

Rooms are almost always asymmetric, with reflections stronger on one side versus the other. Also, speaker drivers are sometimes less than perfectly matched.  Lastly, not all recordings are perfectly matched between left and right channels.

I use my 552's control on a pretty regular basis to dial in a perfectly centered and balanced sound.  Works very well, and only takes a few seconds.

ATB.

Hook

Does that mean an amplifier without balance control being used in an asymmetric room will portray the music slightly askew ( whatever the cause for the imbalance) but most audiophiles will not notice the imbalance as hoped by the designers of such amplifiers?

They also help with channel imbalance on some Naim pre amp volume pots when the volume goes down.

gary yeowell posted:

They also help with channel imbalance on some Naim pre amp volume pots when the volume goes down.

Nait 2 included..

cat345 posted:

gary yeowell posted:

They also help with channel imbalance on some Naim pre amp volume pots when the volume goes down.

Nait 2 included..

That too.

Interestingly (or not) every pair of ported speakers I have owned has had a slight right bias in my more or less symmetrical room. Enough to require the balance to be tweaked on the SN2 & 252 I had before.

With the S-400 in situ in the same room position I've had no such issue and the balance is dead centre.

G

552 included also. Although Naim did take that one back and fix it. 

gary yeowell posted:

They also help with channel imbalance on some Naim pre amp volume pots when the volume goes down.

Not a problem with my 112X, however I think the button layout on the remote could be better; having the balance buttons directly beneath the volume ones is not a good idea.

I now use the remote which came with my Pearl-lite SACD player, which does not have buttons for balance.

Romi posted:

Hook posted:

Rooms are almost always asymmetric, with reflections stronger on one side versus the other. Also, speaker drivers are sometimes less than perfectly matched.  Lastly, not all recordings are perfectly matched between left and right channels.

I use my 552's control on a pretty regular basis to dial in a perfectly centered and balanced sound.  Works very well, and only takes a few seconds.

ATB.

Hook

Does that mean an amplifier without balance control being used in an asymmetric room will portray the music slightly askew ( whatever the cause for the imbalance) but most audiophiles will not notice the imbalance as hoped by the designers of such amplifiers?

It is true that most rooms are asymmetric, so one side will be louder, and the central image will be pulled towards that side.  But I have no idea how many notice or care about this. Like most things in life, it can either be addressed or ignored.  Those without a balance control can reposition speakers to adjust their balance for room effects, or for less than perfectly matched driver pairs, but this will not help with individual recordings that have left/right issues.

I haven't had a balance control for 25 years (and before that it was twin volume sliders) - and sometimes I have wished I had because for whatever reason the sound has seemed off-centre on some recordings. But their greatest value is if you have a listening room where speakers cannot be positioned in the conventional equilateral triangle positions, either because of physical constraints of possible due to unacceptable excitement of nodes, etc: my brother-in-law has his speakers in an odd layout because of room shape, which against all expectation sounds great, the main listening position is closer to one speaker than the other, and judicious use of the balance control is needed to, erm, balance the two channels.

Interesting reading because when I had a Nait XS with no balance control in my asymmetric room I never sensed an imbalance. With my SN2 I now use the balance slightly skewed right to compensate. Same speakers and general positioning. I did swap speakers to see if that was the cause of the imbalance, but it wasn't. Perhaps some subliminal suggestion going on with having a knob to tweak?

joerand posted:

Perhaps some subliminal suggestion going on with having a knob to tweak?

Nope

The better and more revealing the playback equipment becomes, the more you start to immerse yourself into the music, starting to discover nuances. Music isn't perfect and it's not meant to be. It's about emotions... And emotions don't really care wheather they are in a left or a right channel. 

You also have to bear in mind that even mixing and mastering engineers are human and they ears may not be perfectly centered Further - the pressing equipment (LP or CD)... etc etc.....

I think I had more LPs with apparent off-balance than I've ever had CDs, and in any case is rare to be significant enough to wish I could correct: it's just as if I'm positioned a few feet off centre at a concert/gig - and as a point of reference, with live music it isn't often possible to be positioned perfectly. Had I thought about it at the time I could have corrected any LPs when I ripped them, but simply didn't think of it.