[savenger]

I just received my Soundmagic PL-30's yesterday, and I'm impressed with their quality. I've burnt them in for about 15 hours now and I'm liking how they sound.

It just occurred to me today that the left channel is maybe slightly louder than the right channel. I've tried on 3 sources, swapped ears, swapped tips, etc... It seems really obvious sometimes and not noticeable at all at other times. For all I know I'm going crazy.

Has anyone heard of this happening before? Is it a common problem for headphones, or the PL-30 in particular?

 

[luciobar1980]

I'm sure (Ive heard) it happens, but don't know about this issue being more prevalent in the pl30

 

[savenger]

Hmm...

I'm getting very frustrated by this. I feel lopsided whenever I listen to them. I've been using balance control to compensate and it evens out between 10-15% right.

It seems like maybe it's not just a volume issue... it's incredibly subtle, but the frequency response on the right phone sounds like it may be a little different. I'm assuming there is a problem with the voice coil or diaphragm. On a $25 pair of phones I doubt there's anything I can do about it :/... You get what you pay for I guess.

Oh well... might be an excuse to try out a pair of RE2's

 

[DervishD]

It happens, definitely. When I bought my PL30 I was very happy with them (specially for the price) so I recommended them to a couple of friends, and BOTH got PL30's with imbalance. If I remember correctly, both had the imbalance to the right (right was louder). In one case the difference was little and only in the basses, so maybe the adjustable knob was damaged and there was no imbalance at all, but in the other case the imbalance affected the entire range of frequencies and was caused but an impedance mismatch (the left driver's impedance was almost double than the right one).

They both returned the PL30 and in both cases the replacements worked OK. Maybe a defective batch :?

 

[karma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by savenger /img/forum/go_quote.gif It seems like maybe it's not just a volume issue... it's incredibly subtle, but the frequency response on the right phone sounds like it may be a little different. I'm assuming there is a problem with the voice coil or diaphragm. On a $25 pair of phones I doubt there's anything I can do about it :/... You get what you pay for I guess.

Imbalance issues, though rare, definitely occur. I experienced it on a pair of HD600s once. It was subtle and made me question my sanity at times, but it was obvious once I played around with the balance control. (Fortunately, for me, the seller took it back.)

I'd recommend that you contact the seller of the PL30 and seek a replacement since yours are defective.

 

[savenger]

Thanks for the responses.

I've contacted the seller and they've agreed to exchange them. I'm sending them to Shenzen from Australia so it'll probably be at least a couple of weeks until I get my new pair

Hopefully they'll give me a set from the good batch this time.

 

[MrGreen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by karma /img/forum/go_quote.gif Imbalance issues, though rare, definitely occur. I experienced it on a pair of HD600s once. It was subtle and made me question my sanity at times, but it was obvious once I played around with the balance control. (Fortunately, for me, the seller took it back.) I'd recommend that you contact the seller of the PL30 and seek a replacement since yours are defective.

Actually, imbalance is the norm, although generally very minor (I think standard tolerance for HD600 sort of level is about 1 dB difference which is "practically inaudible").

Audiometry headphones in theory have no or very little imbalance due to their applications (like the DT48)

 

[savenger]

Thanks for the info.

I'm surprised at how little info there is on imbalance related issues.

I got impatient and found a great deal on a set of RE0's locally, I'm picking them up today