[NOoneWillknow]

I don't know what happened, but I feel like that my iems and headphones have a channel imbalance, like vocals always sound to come from centre right, but nothing else. it's like my right ear is now 1.2db more sensitive than my left ear only just for 900hz to 2000hz. is that possible? maybe it's my spatial awareness, but when i put my spotify to mono it's perfectly fine. just super weird stuff. or is it the music recording? or I haven't realized it until now.

edit: most probable is that I just hadn't realized until now, because there are a few songs, just a few, where it's perfectly balanced.

 

[dunring]

The quick way is install a decibel meter phone app and use an online test tone generator to sweep through the frequencies and switch the left and right to compare. Just center the headphones so the phone mic is centered.

 

[haasaaroni]

I don't know what happened, but I feel like that my iems and headphones have a channel imbalance, like vocals always sound to come from centre right, but nothing else. it's like my right ear is now 1.2db more sensitive than my left ear only just for 900hz to 2000hz. is that possible? maybe it's my spatial awareness, but when i put my spotify to mono it's perfectly fine. just super weird stuff. or is it the music recording? or I haven't realized it until now.

edit: most probable is that I just hadn't realized until now, because there are a few songs, just a few, where it's perfectly balanced.

I deeply sympathize haha...I probably spent the better part of 2 years trying to fix what I thought was a channel imbalance and then realized it was my own hearing. I even returned tubes that I thought had a channel imbalance (sorry TubeStore)! I was hearing voices coming from the center left most of the time, so the opposite of you.

So I did a little hearing test at a Costco and found that I do actually have a significant discrepancy between my left and right ears, my left ear being a lot more sensitive in the upper mids and in the bass frequencies than my right. The result was that female vocals were usually centered, but more bass-heavy male vocals drifted left. When I would try to correct it with channel balancing methods, it would shift everything right, but then the instruments followed as well. And the stage sounded askew, even though the voices were centered.

The ultimate fix was actually investing in gear that portrayed the sense of forward depth very well. So using the Pendant SE and Auteur Classics, I now very rarely hear the voices off center. My 6XX's, with a more shallow depth, tended to throw voices left, as did my Aeolus. Both of those headphones like the cram stuff in your face, so the difference between "center" "left" and "right" are all very close together, rather than existing outside and in front of you in space. But with more neutrally presenting headphones and a good sense of forward depth with good imaging (the HESE V2 and HE 1000V2 did this too) voices were in their "right places" again.

So I imagine the fix is very often personal, depending on which frequencies are out of balance the most. But I would give this forward depth thing a try, if it's a possibility. Then yes, of course there are some recordings with the voices just naturally towards the left or right. They're not always centered. Mark Knopfler's "Shangri-La" recording still presents with a left-of-center vocal presentation, on all tracks. Whereas "Golden Heart" is centered on all tracks.

I hope this helps!

 

[WorksUnit]

Another thing that may be worth a go is to try an aerosol based contact cleaner.
(Had some results on micro USB and SE imbalance gremlins.)

 

[NOoneWillknow]

I deeply sympathize haha...I probably spent the better part of 2 years trying to fix what I thought was a channel imbalance and then realized it was my own hearing. I even returned tubes that I thought had a channel imbalance (sorry TubeStore)! I was hearing voices coming from the center left most of the time, so the opposite of you.

So I did a little hearing test at a Costco and found that I do actually have a significant discrepancy between my left and right ears, my left ear being a lot more sensitive in the upper mids and in the bass frequencies than my right. The result was that female vocals were usually centered, but more bass-heavy male vocals drifted left. When I would try to correct it with channel balancing methods, it would shift everything right, but then the instruments followed as well. And the stage sounded askew, even though the voices were centered.

The ultimate fix was actually investing in gear that portrayed the sense of forward depth very well. So using the Pendant SE and Auteur Classics, I now very rarely hear the voices off center. My 6XX's, with a more shallow depth, tended to throw voices left, as did my Aeolus. Both of those headphones like the cram stuff in your face, so the difference between "center" "left" and "right" are all very close together, rather than existing outside and in front of you in space. But with more neutrally presenting headphones and a good sense of forward depth with good imaging (the HESE V2 and HE 1000V2 did this too) voices were in their "right places" again.

So I imagine the fix is very often personal, depending on which frequencies are out of balance the most. But I would give this forward depth thing a try, if it's a possibility. Then yes, of course there are some recordings with the voices just naturally towards the left or right. They're not always centered. Mark Knopfler's "Shangri-La" recording still presents with a left-of-center vocal presentation, on all tracks. Whereas "Golden Heart" is centered on all tracks.

I hope this helps!

OMG! yes, thank you so much. I thought I was hearing things. tested all my headphones and iems. The ones with the least effect were my higher-end iems, like the nanna and variations, (i don't really have headphones, except for my xm4).

 

[NOoneWillknow]

OMG! yes, thank you so much. I thought I was hearing things. tested all my headphones and iems. The ones with the least effect were my higher-end iems, like the nanna and variations, (i don't really have headphones, except for my xm4).

however, I still can't find a solution to fix the problem, other than worsening my right ear's hearing. which i don't want to do.

Update: I found I big issue that made the effect worse. My phone is a vivo, in settings there's this thing which tries to widen the audio but makes songs less precise. And makes the imbalance much worse than it already is.

Mostly fixed now, it most probably turned on when updating my phone.

 

[haasaaroni]

however, I still can't find a solution to fix the problem, other than worsening my right ear's hearing. which i don't want to do.

Update: I found I big issue that made the effect worse. My phone is a vivo, in settings there's this thing which tries to widen the audio but makes songs less precise. And makes the imbalance much worse than it already is.

Mostly fixed now, it most probably turned on when updating my phone.

Nice! I remember once checking my iMac and seeing I actually had the balance setting off to the left. It was like my computer was playing tricks with me. Glad to see your issue is mostly resolved!

 

[Hypops]

Also, if you haven’t already, invest in some ear wax cleaner and flush out your ears. It’s a more common issue if you’ve got wetter ear wax that can lead to uneven hearing between your two ears. It may even take a few complete and thorough cleanings/flushings to get some of the deepest, densest junk out of your ear canals.