It seems that when I use my headphones (which are Grado SR 80's), the sound is shifted slightly towards the left. This is true especially with cymbals and high-pitched guitar licks, but it occasionally happens with other sounds. What's even weirder is that when I flip the headphones around, the high frequencies still seem shifted over to the left earcup (which is playing into my right ear), but the low-end or midrange sounds in the right earcup seem a bit more up-front in my left ear.

My headphone drivers may be poorly balanced, but I've detected the same problem with my other headphones (PortaPros), so that's probably not it.

It also may be a slight degree of hearing loss in my right ear, which would really suck, but that's not especially likely since I'm only 20 years old and I've only started noticing the problem recently.

Of course, there's also the possibility that my headphones and my ears are fine, and this is just some weird perceptual thing that's all in my head.


Has anybody ever experienced something like this?

Hiya...

Yes, I have exactly the same issue for about half the year...

My own is caused by (from what I can gather) a partially blocked tube in my ear that is affected by hayfever and so forth

try some hayfever remedies to see if that helps you out

Else could be something somewhat more trivial, like driver placement... even though it may appear logical that both drivers need to sit the same way on your ears, that isn't always the case

I have the same problem. The focal point for the music seems to be just behind my right eye, which is annoying.

I seem to notice it more with open phones than with closed ones. I had a test done recently, and there's nothing wrong with my hearing, so it's probably just all in my head.

Strange though, that my left ear hears things slightly darker than my right ear, and feels as though it's full of cotton sometimes. The doctor looked in, but couldn't see anything wrong.

Perhaps I just need to give headphones a rest for a few days...

My best guess is that we all just naturally have very slight differences in our ears' sensitivities. After all, we're not completely symmetrical on the inside. I'll mess around with driver placement, but checking for some seasonal ailment like hayfever is also a good idea. The supposed problem has only been there since around the start of summer, so there's a chance that's the problem.

In the meantime, I'll simply have to restrict myself to listening only to the albums that are so good that I forget about the off-center thing.

Although it could be caused by a sensitivity difference between your ears, it also may be some blockage in one of your ears. It wouldn’t hurt to schedule an ear cleaning the next time you head to the doc for a checkup.

I have this problem too, with the image shifted to the right, however it is almost exclusively when using my grado SR-125. I find that repositioning helps. It seems that one of my ears is more flexable than the other and is them pushed harder against my head. At least that is what the problem seems to be for me. On my HP170, KSC-35 and V6's the sound is firmly in the center of my cranium. At the same time there are also a lot of tracks where this problem simply wont go away due to recoding methods with way to extreme stereo imaging (even with crossfeed).

Blockages in your ear can be so slight that you may not notice them in the course of a normal day, yet a good headphone listening session can bring them right out. I have noticed slight blockage in my left ear every once a year or so, usually during the allergy season. My doctor gave me this method of clearing my ears: pinch nose firmly, blow as hard as you can comfortably. This may seem very unnatural at first, but it works for me. If you do it correctly, and you do indeed have blockage, you will feel the blockage being cleared. Be careful though, I'm pretty sure blowing too hard can damage your ears. He says the method most doctors use does a similar thing, except you have to schedule an appointment and whatnot.

I think that's called "popping" your ears. I have to sometimes do this a couple times daily because I have bad allergies. Allergy season lasts 365 days a year, and 366 on leap years, for me. I absolutely hate it when my ears sound "stuffed up". I think I may also have wax buildup as I have not gotten my ears cleaned by a doctor for around 6 years and I use Q-tips a lot. Anybody have any ideas on good, safe earwax removal stuff that can be obtained at a local place (e.g. RiteAid, Walgreens)?

Edit: You may say "see a doctor", but that is very expensive when you don't have insurance so its not an option except in real emergencies.

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I bought Bausch & Lomb Earwax Removal Kit from Local Walmart Store (actually I think you can find it anywhere) for about $7 bucks (I think) and it worked removing earwax, but I doubt it helped about sound off-centered though. I have this problem too where middle of soundstage is between my nose and left eye. But I learnt to live with it and sometimes it just shift back to the center. I can't figure out what happen. By the way, in my case it's a lot better with home speakers or listening with Xfeed engaged.

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Which reminds me of this....