SuperNait 2 balance settings

Do it by eye or best of all by ear.  Unless it has been misaligned then it's at centre when the illuminated indicator is at 12 o'clock.

Like I said, I did it by ear already and it's fine. Just wanted to know if there was a way to set it fixed dead centre so I could tune the balance from there if needed instead of having to guess by eye if the illuminated indicator was set precisely at 12 o'clock or not.

Set up some sort of jig on the floor. A long straight piece that stretches between the outside edges of your loudspeakers. Some way of measuring both angles so they are the same, and a right angled part pointing towards the listening seat exactly in the middle.

This way you should hear both channels aligned acoustically. Sense of symmetry should be easier to determine.   But yes it would drive me nuts if the balance control didn't have an indentation notch in the middle.     Some purist amps have two volume knobs. Left and right. The thought of agonising over that every time it was used would be crazy

There is no point in doing that. Unless your room is perfectly symmetrical and has the same absorbing panels on both sides.

Besides - Naim volume pot is not symmetrical at low volumes (below 8 or so) it tends to be lounder in a left channel in the amps that I’ve heard or own.

I'd tend to agree with Adam based on my listening to the SN2 in my entirely asymmetric room - a partially-angled wall on my right, a wide opening/entrance on the right, and a vaulted ceiling that increases in height to the right.  A bay window on the left and another opening/entrance behind me as well. While this meant my balance dial on the SN2 was always biased right to get a centered sonic, the degree of balance varied depending on the volume as well as the album.

With time I found bringing the right speaker closer to my listening position gained a more general centering, with less concern to flicking L/R buttons on the remote. That, and I learned not to worry about subtle imbalances as they can become a distraction to overall musical enjoyment.

My new amp has no balance control, so I live with a slight asymmetric speaker positioning as the best balance measure. Frankly, I find that disposal more enjoyable than attempting to tweak balance via a remote with varying volumes or different albums.

I've got a dedicated, perfectly symmetrical listening room with no absorbing panels. Both speakers stand 65 cm from the back wall and 52 cm from the side wall with a 1 m wide AV rack between them that stands 50 cm from the back wall, sub sits between the AV rack and the right speaker. Another smaller audio rack is placed between the left speaker and the AV rack.

Listening position is +/- 3 m away dead centre of the room and the AV rack but I've still have to set the balance slightly to the right to get a perfect balance with various kinds of music and videos from my listening position.

If you want precision, get a test disk (CD or vinyl as appropriate), and a DVM.
Use a test track around 200Hz and measure the voltage (AC) at the speakers (don't be surprised if there's a significant difference between vinyl and CD, the CD player is a LOT more accurate than the cartridge).

But that's massive technical overkill and doesn't take account of your ears.

Do it by ear.

Drikus posted:

 

Listening position is +/- 3 m away dead centre of the room and the AV rack but I've still have to set the balance slightly to the right to get a perfect balance with various kinds of music and videos from my listening position.

What position is the volume knob then at?

Balance stays the same at various volumes.

Huge posted:

If you want precision, get a test disk (CD or vinyl as appropriate), and a DVM.
Use a test track around 200Hz and measure the voltage (AC) at the speakers (don't be surprised if there's a significant difference between vinyl and CD, the CD player is a LOT more accurate than the cartridge).

But that's massive technical overkill and doesn't take account of your ears.

Do it by ear.

I never do audio system measurements, setup has to be done by ear.

If there are doors on either side of the listening position or large glass surfaces, this will also affect the perceived balance. It’s all to do with reflections that reach the listening postions with various delay speeds.

One more point to be noted - quite a number of recordings are not actually that centred.

Yes there's a door on the left and a large window on the right side from my listening position.

Balance is good now, wasn't planning on adjusting it for each album.

Drikus

I agree setup has to be done by ear. Maybe the EBU Sound Quality Assessment Material, which can be downloaded can help.

Dave

Link is dead...

Drikus

Try Googling "EBU Sound Quality Assessment Material". It took me to the same page but I had to click the file link a couple of times before the folder SQAM_FLAC.zip appeared.

Dave

I found it in the meantime. Thank you.