Well, I created a thread here a while ago about general acoustics, and I'm still working out ideas for treatments. As many of us do, I have a number of other "projects" that are keeping me busy at the moment.
Anyway, frequently, while listening to 2-channel music, I'm bothered by a tendency in my system/room to "pull" me toward the left speaker. Sometimes, sounds that I think should be anchored firmly in the center of the soundstage are smeared toward the left. I have one "audiophile test" track that is to test imaging, and the guy is talking out of the direct center (according to him, anyway), and I can clearly hear him coming out of the left, just enough to be super annoying. All this having been said, my system generally performs very well, and a lot of music does image and stage correctly, with vocals coming from dead center. I have considered the possibilty that, although marked as an "audiophile test CD", the track with the man talking from "center", then "right" and so on, could have something wrong with it.
So, check out the attached image to get an idea for the layout of the room. I have been thinking, for a while, that the "full wall", marked in red, is causing some reverberation, as it's almost directly facing the left speaker. The waves then have an opportunity to bounce back toward the speaker, as well as directly off that wall and toward the listener (indicated by where I've drawn the mess of arrows). This effectively reinforces the sound from the left, while the sound from the right speaker is allowed to go beyond the listener to the far wall, creating much less bounceback and sound reflections from that side.
So, what to do? Cover that whole "full wall", marked in red, with a treatment? I'm definitely going to treat behind both mains, as soon as I can get to it.
I have also considered that the problem could be with any other part of my system. I recently swapped preamps, so I know it's not that. Next step is to swap amplifier channels (EDIT: Swapped amp channels, it's not that), and then speakers, to see if either of those are actually out of spec somewhere.
Am I thinking in the right direction in that the "full wall" is causing me trouble?
Anyway, frequently, while listening to 2-channel music, I'm bothered by a tendency in my system/room to "pull" me toward the left speaker. Sometimes, sounds that I think should be anchored firmly in the center of the soundstage are smeared toward the left. I have one "audiophile test" track that is to test imaging, and the guy is talking out of the direct center (according to him, anyway), and I can clearly hear him coming out of the left, just enough to be super annoying. All this having been said, my system generally performs very well, and a lot of music does image and stage correctly, with vocals coming from dead center. I have considered the possibilty that, although marked as an "audiophile test CD", the track with the man talking from "center", then "right" and so on, could have something wrong with it.
So, check out the attached image to get an idea for the layout of the room. I have been thinking, for a while, that the "full wall", marked in red, is causing some reverberation, as it's almost directly facing the left speaker. The waves then have an opportunity to bounce back toward the speaker, as well as directly off that wall and toward the listener (indicated by where I've drawn the mess of arrows). This effectively reinforces the sound from the left, while the sound from the right speaker is allowed to go beyond the listener to the far wall, creating much less bounceback and sound reflections from that side.
So, what to do? Cover that whole "full wall", marked in red, with a treatment? I'm definitely going to treat behind both mains, as soon as I can get to it.
I have also considered that the problem could be with any other part of my system. I recently swapped preamps, so I know it's not that. Next step is to swap amplifier channels (EDIT: Swapped amp channels, it's not that), and then speakers, to see if either of those are actually out of spec somewhere.
Am I thinking in the right direction in that the "full wall" is causing me trouble?