[Vedder323]

Where to begin? About a month ago, I noticed something strange after I moved my speakers around and made a few amp upgrades. My "center" soundstage shifted from dead center to about 6-8 inches to the left. I am in very small room with Anthony Gallo 3.1s and have them approx 7 feet apart and about 5 1/2 feet from my ears. I have literally tried everything from changing out my pre-amp, amplifier, and even speakers themselves for some others and the center is still off the left! What the heck could have caused this? Is it even possible for the room or speaker positioning do this?

[Big Red Machine]

Any tubes in the system?  Sometimes a bad tube can swing the sound toward one channel.  Assume the balance control is dead center?  Are you dead center in the room in a major node and some cancellation is happening?  If not the electronics, then for sure the room can cause this.  I set my room up 6 inches to one side and sat at the 62% back distance to try and escape the room modes being on top of my ears.  What are your dimensions?

[Vedder323]

No tubes other than in the preamp.

Gear:

Mog- Apple TV- optical- Peachtree Nova Pre- Peachtree 220- Gallo 3.1s

Room:

10' L 9' W

Im sitting on the 9' wall, I cant position anything the other way around. Ceilings are 8' if im not mistaken.

 

[Vedder323]

No tubes other than in the preamp.

Gear:

Mog- Apple TV- optical- Peachtree Nova Pre- Peachtree 220- Gallo 3.1s (no balance control)

Room:

10' L 9' W

Im sitting on the 9' wall, I cant position anything the other way around. Ceilings are 8' if im not mistaken.

[pumpkinman]

This happened to my friend Gene. Turned out to be a bad tube in his preamp
Though I can't say you have the same problem

[Big Red Machine]

switch tubes left to right and see if it swings the other way

[Vedder323]

It cant be the preamp- I tried plugging my iphone headphone out directly into the poweramp and had the exact same problem so thats not the issue for sure.

[rockadanny]

Can you move your speakers back to where they were to put all theories to the test?

[JerryM]

switch tubes left to right and see if it swings the other way

Good advice, but is is noted that the OP states he tried another preamp.

How hard would it be to swap the left for right cables one set at a time to rule them out ?

[Vedder323]

Good advice, but is is noted that the OP states he tried another preamp.

How hard would it be to swap the left for right cables one set at a time to rule them out ?

Tried that as well, even swapped them left to right to see if the soundstage would follow, nothing.

[Vedder323]

Can you move your speakers back to where they were to put all theories to the test?

I think im gonna have to, I seriously thought I was losing my hearing out of my right ear, but after having my wife sit down, she confirmed, its definitely off by about a foot to the left... 

[JerryM]

Swap only the two speakers before you return everything to the past configuration. It'll be interesting. 

Edit: It is noted that you previously changed out speakers . I'd follow rockadanny's advice and put everything back the way it was. 

[Vedder323]

Swap only the two speakers before you return everything to the past configuration. It'll be interesting. 

Edit: It is noted that you previously changed out speakers . I'd follow rockadanny's advice and put everything back the way it was. 

Okay, its the last option, I dont know what else to do. I just didnt know if it was even possible for the room to shift the center stage like that?

[TJHUB]

Could it be that your left speaker is a couple of inches closer to the listening position than the right speaker?  If one speaker is closer to you, your brain will perceive it as louder and your center image will shift.  Get the tape measure out and check. 

[JRace]

It could be three things:
Your ears
Your electronics
Your room

You say your wife confirms it, and no change when bypassing the amp, nor when swapping speakers.

Sounds like the room.

How far is the sidewalls and back wall ( wall behind the speakers)?

[Letitroll98]

Could it be that your left speaker is a couple of inches closer to the listening position than the right speaker?  If one speaker is closer to you, your brain will perceive it as louder and your center image will shift.  Get the tape measure out and check.

After swapping cables and equipment, this is the most likely cause.  You don't need a couple of inches to do it, with some speakers 1/8" to a 1/4" can make a big difference.  Simply move the left speaker back or the right speaker forward to see if that fixes it.  Also level the speakers if you haven't yet done so.  Tilting slightly to one side or back to front can also cause a shift of image location.

[boynamedsue]

Ditto on the leveling. I had a center image problem that was fixed by leveling one of the speakers that was slightly off tilt.

[Vedder323]

Well, I moved the speaker back to where they were before and not much had changed, the vocals were still off to the left by a few inches. I was up really late last night and decided to go nuts. I moved the speakers out of the room and played them without any walls around, no boundaries close by and guess what? Perfect. Its the room guys and its gonna drive me literally insane. Knowing it was the room, I placed the speakers back in and started getting more aggressive about placement, meaning; instead of a moving the left speaker back a couple inches, I started in feet and to my surprise, it worked. This is crazy and I dont know how my room is effecting the speakers so much? THE ONLY thing I can think of is I have made some big upgrades in my gear, specifically my source. Im now using the Nova PRE which has the Sabre DAC as opposed to my old logitech squeezebox analogue outs. Perhaps the only reason I have noticed the changes is because there is more detail and pin point accuracy in my system? Regardless, im struck with either bizarre looking placement: one speaker a foot back from the other, or totally rearranging the room? Or....  would some room acoustic panels fix this? I dont have any at this time.

Thoughts?

[bpape]

Can you describe the construction of the room?  Is there anything different on one side than the other - maybe one is a full stud wall and the other is just firred over concrete?  Maybe a window on one side?  Anything?

Bryan

[boynamedsue]

I understand the agony. I went to great lengths to figure out my center image problem - moving speakers around, adding room acoustics, swapping components and cables, ruling out recording by using headphones - and nothing seemed to help until I realized that the left speaker (maggies 3.6) was tilted slightly to the left. I leveled it (left to right and front to back), with speakers symmetrical relative to room dimensions and listening position, and the image was roughly centered whereas before it egregiously swayed to the left. Interestingly, when I over-compensated by tilting to the right, the image moved to the right - I wonder if this may work for you.

Another interesting observation was that the height of my listening position affected center image as well. When I recline my couch to lower position, the image is higher as if I'm looking up at stage and image is dead center, whereas the image still sways slightly to the left at normal listening height but not to the point it bothers me like before. There is definitely some room interactions going on in my system, and my hypothesis is that my right wall is leaking a bit of the sound because it is lined with windows whereas left wall is bare wall and the left wall reflections are pulling sound in that direction.

Even though you're getting better center image having left speaker a foot or so back, I wonder if it is negatively affecting the image in other ways because the sound is not arriving at your listening position at same time.

BTW, have you tried toe in? And how about EQ (gasp)?