[KingStyles]

 
Quote:

Most people do not have 100% identical hearing in both of their ears.  One is usually better, although sometimes very slightly, than the other.  Even though in biology we use terms like "bilaterally symmetric", we are far from mirror images of each half.
 
Still, I'm sure there errors in recording mastering, or perhaps it's a desired effect to not have vocals in the middle.  Or, it's slightly different amplification itself in your system. 
 
Who knows....  There are so many reasons for why someone might be hearing vocals slightly off center.

When I listen to live vocals, which I do all the time since my wife is a singer, I can always pin point exactly where she is with my eyes close including when she is perfectly centered infront of me. When I listen to headphones though a lot of music is panned to the left.

 

[hodgjy]

It must be a mastering effect.  Like was suggested earlier, it might be to separate the vocals a little better from the drums.
 
Quote:

 
When I listen to live vocals, which I do all the time since my wife is a singer, I can always pin point exactly where she is with my eyes close including when she is perfectly centered infront of me. When I listen to headphones though a lot of music is panned to the left.

 

[vinnievidi]

It's interesting to hear a possible explanation for this... I thought I was going crazy!  I noticed that some headphones make this panning more pronounced than others, which is actually what caused me to buy (many many) different headphones and IEMs in the past.

 

[xnor]

Try crossfeed, it alleviates the problem with headphones a bit.

 

[Rocko1]

  It must be a mastering effect.  Like was suggested earlier, it might be to separate the vocals a little better from the drums.
 

 

It's not actually a mastering issue, as the mastering is done with stereo mixes. It's a mixing issue. If the person mixing is not diligent the vocals can be left or right of center.

 

[Mediahound]

I arrived here via a search. This is so interesting. Especially noticeable when listening to a balanced source/amp on headphones.
 
I actually thought there was some issue with my amp or my hearing.
 
For years I've always thought my hearing in my right ear was worse.  

 
 
You can test this by reversing your headphones. The vocals should shift slightly to the right then. 
 
I've done extensive listening tests on this lately and one song I don't hear this on however is John Mayer's "Waiting On The Day" on the Paradise Valley album. The vocal seems more center. Check it out. 

 

[judgmentday]

  Hi,
 
ever since I received my custom Triple.Fi 10, I was surprised by how the vocals always tend towards the (very) left side, with instruments seperated nicely, but sometimes little more to the right. Now don't get me wrong, the earphones sound good, my hearing is intact, but it's just very noticeable and somewhat distracting and annoying. I fix it by panning the stereo image to the right a little bit, so the vocals tend to be in the middle. Now, with a regular speaker setup, I don't notice this at all. And with previous IEMs not that much either, even though it's easier to make an image inside your head. 
 
Is it because of the studio mix and better isolation and acoustics of my customs, that I notice this? 
 
So if anyone could care to explain this, I'd be happy to hear it.
 
Thanks

I know what you mean.  For a long time I had this problem.  I heard vocals or lead instruments on the LEFT side. Some one recommended me to use the balance control but still sounded very wrong. I even got rid of the Preamp, Amp, and speakers. Never knew for sure what was the problem.  I did numerous tests and could not find out what was wrong with it.  I moved my audio gear to another room in the house, I got a new Preamp, amp and speakers and problem was solved. For sure there are some recordings that have better imaging than others but to hear the lead instrument or lead vocal on the left is totally wrong. 

 

[eugenius]

clean your right ear

 

[icebear]

 
I know what you mean.  For a long time I had this problem.  I heard vocals or lead instruments on the LEFT side. Some one recommended me to use the balance control but still sounded very wrong. I even got rid of the Preamp, Amp, and speakers. Never knew for sure what was the problem.  I did numerous tests and could not find out what was wrong with it.  I moved my audio gear to another room in the house, I got a new Preamp, amp and speakers and problem was solved. For sure there are some recordings that have better imaging than others but to hear the lead instrument or lead vocal on the left is totally wrong. 

Get a test recording in a medium of your choice (LP ...?) with clearly documented positions of the musicians or sound sources and verify that in your playback set up your hear the imaging as intended by the recording engineer.

 

[DaejeonCitizen]

OMG I've had this issue for as long as I can remember; and not just with cans but speakers too. I've had a hearing test pretty recently and both ears came back pretty much the same. I just assumed that I had some psychological issue that forced voices to sound like they came from the left. IME, it's very slight and hard to explain. The voice finally ends up somewhere around centre, yet it seems as if the vocalist is somewhere to the left of the soundstage so that the initial sound emanates from the left but arrives centre-ish. Does that make sense? I'm somewhat relieved that others share my experiences.

 

[Mediahound]

  OMG I've had this issue for as long as I can remember; and not just with cans but speakers too. I've had a hearing test pretty recently and both ears came back pretty much the same. I just assumed that I had some psychological issue that forced voices to sound like they came from the left. IME, it's very slight and hard to explain. The voice finally ends up somewhere around centre, yet it seems as if the vocalist is somewhere to the left of the soundstage so that the initial sound emanates from the left but arrives centre-ish. Does that make sense? I'm somewhat relieved that others share my experiences.

Yes, that describes it well. Vocals are mostly slightly left of center with some of the vocal intonations going to the right at times. 

 

[sonitus mirus]

I wonder if this phenomena could have something to do with the laterality of our brains?  Maybe our ears can have a similar trait that our eyes have with regards to ocular dominance.  Both of my eyes, when measured individually, are practically the same in most regards, but I typically favor my left.  I am right handed, and when aiming a weapon, I have to force myself to use my right eye instead of my left.  I'd be curious to know if there have been any studies done with our ears in a similar regard.
 
With both eyes open, if you hold your finger out in front at arm's length and move this finger directly over some distant object, when you close either eye, the finger will either stay directly over the object behind it, indicating the open eye as dominant, or it will move away in one direction or the other, indicating the non-dominant eye.  
 
Perhaps this could hold true with our hearing as well, though I have no idea how this might manifest itself.  Maybe a sound that is close to perfectly centered between the ears can sound off slightly to the left or right depending on our ear dominance?  Just a thought.
 
I know that with my eyes, I can consciously switch the dominance without too much difficulty.

 

[SilverEars]

 
Get a test recording in a medium of your choice (LP ...?) with clearly documented positions of the musicians or sound sources and verify that in your playback set up your hear the imaging as intended by the recording engineer.

Can anybody else attest to this?  This seems plausible for live recordings.  That the imaging wouldn't be aligned.  Studio recordings would be different.

 

[RRod]

If you can isolate a section that has voice only, or mostly voice, then you can compare the waveforms both in time and frequency to see if indeed one channel is louder, either by virtue of volume or by having a spectral balance weighted towards the more sensitive parts of our hearing. And make sure to try reversing the channels.

  Can anybody else attest to this?  This seems plausible for live recordings.  That the imaging wouldn't be aligned.  Studio recordings would be different.

 
Happens all the time in classical, but that's a bit of a different world.

 

[castleofargh]

when I had those doubts, I just went and turned a song to mono. in my case it was once my O2 on a very bad spot with almost 0.5db imbalance, and the very first time was with some IEM where going too deep was blocking one side a little.
another option is a difference from left to right in the headphone/speaker. I only measured IEMs, but I have a hard time getting one that doesn't have one or 2db variation at one point or another, and sometimes in the medium. that would make for a good reason why some sounds feel like they are centered, but not all.
 
obviously a difference in hearing might explain this, but unless it's massive, I would imagine our brain to correct the difference in all situations.
 
could having an asymmetrical body create something like that? I know about HRTF but I have no idea how much deviation and where a slightly out centered jaw or something like that, could impact the perceived FR? (ok I'm fishing here).