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Speakers have different loudness, am I crazy?

1298 Views 13 Replies 10 Participants Last post by crazyrob425, Aug 17, 2011

Test123455

Discussion Starter · Aug 14, 2011

So I bought two Polk Monitor70 speakers and i sometimes feel like the left is a bit louder/better than the right. Audyssey has them set at the same level (-9db iirc) and distance though (the angle is the same also). Am I nuts (probably...i think its close)? All wires are set up correctly as well.

I guess it could be speaker break-in, or maybe ive just been watching movies with sounds that originate from the left more often.

But i'm probably crazy.

Thanks

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1 - 14 of 14 Posts

afrogt

· #2 · Aug 14, 2011

Switch the two speakers and see what happens. If the left side is still louder/better then its not the speakers.

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Test123455

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 14, 2011

Figured that was what i would have to do.

Also a reason: my right ear could just be worse than my left. Though i suspect this is not the case as my right ear is usually more sensitive.

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Roshy

· #4 · Aug 14, 2011

I've had this happen to me too, the auto cal stuff sets things up, says they are identical, and it sounds off. Switching speakers didn't sound any different.. Possibly just room acoustics at different frequencies?

And yes, to answer your original question, I think you are crazy.

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Test123455

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 14, 2011

Haha, I figured it was the something like that. This version of audyssey is pretty basic too. Alright, thanks guys!

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G-Bull

· #6 · Aug 14, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by Test123455 /forum/post/20820284

Figured that was what i would have to do.

Also a reason: my right ear could just be worse than my left. Though i suspect this is not the case as my right ear is usually more sensitive.

I think this could be the answer (your ears are different). My right ear doesn't hear as well as my left. For me, I think it was too much subwoofer in my RX7 hatchback in my late teens/early 20s.

If you're having a conversation in a noisy room, do you tend to turn your head to favor one ear over the other, so you can hear the other person better?

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omegaslast

· #7 · Aug 14, 2011

http://www.aperionaudio.com/product/...43,40,146.aspx

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Test123455

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 16, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by G-Bull /forum/post/20820758

I think this could be the answer (your ears are different). My right ear doesn't hear as well as my left. For me, I think it was too much subwoofer in my RX7 hatchback in my late teens/early 20s.

If you're having a conversation in a noisy room, do you tend to turn your head to favor one ear over the other, so you can hear the other person better?

I hear the same or better out of my right ear. I never favor one ear though.

This is kind of aggravating. I will switch the left cables to the right and vice versa and see if its the receiver.

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Gooddoc

· #9 · Aug 16, 2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by Test123455 /forum/post/20826959

I hear the same or better out of my right ear. I never favor one ear though.

This is kind of aggravating. I will switch the left cables to the right and vice versa and see if its the receiver.

Just remove your ears from the equation and measure the SPL with the AVR pink noise.

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schan1269

· #10 · Aug 16, 2011

SPL meters don't lie. You can actually (if you want to invest in this fully, ha) buy two with USB interface.

Run Audiocheck.net through both speakers at the same time with the identical SPL meters at the same distance from each and watch real time frequency response on your computer.

So, there is a possibility you are "hearing things differently" or you might have two M70 on polar opposites of "production tolerance".

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Timothy91

· #11 · Aug 16, 2011

It could also be the source material you're listening to is mixed that way. When doing my post-auto-calibration manual tuning, I utilized multiple sources when fine tuning my system to matchup the volume, character and quality from all the channels. One item was a quad-channel music disc of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The center image between the right and left speakers were slightly tilted to the left and when I rebalanced it to the center, it threw off every other multi-channel item as well as 2-channel music CD playback.

While I do agree that auto-calibration is good at setting things that humans can't detect reliably like phase & standing waves without special equipment but they still aren't perfect at it and there is no doubt that my manual re-eq does a much better job at getting all the channels to sound more similar. I've swapped back and forth between my re-eq preset and the original auto-tune preset. My adjustments are much closer to sounding balanced on tone and also the sound pans around the different channels with no audible difference. It's a clean, consistent panning. This is one of the big reasons I love Pioneer;s MCACC. Also, from just a pure auto-tune perspective, MCACC also sounds the best to me after I did my own head to head comparisons with Harman's and Audessey's auto tuners.

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ES_Revenge

· #12 · Aug 16, 2011

If one speaker is in or near a corner of a room, it will probably sound louder.

I found that little tidbit out way back when I was a teenager and got my first set of "real" speakers--a pair of JBL bookshelves.

Switched the receiver channels around, switched the speakers around, was still the same. Then I thought it was my ears, lol, but I turned around and the same thing.

Then it finally dawned on me--the speaker in the corner was getting gain from the room/walls.

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Test123455

Discussion Starter · #13 · Aug 17, 2011

Both sides of the room are pretty identical...my setup is almost symmetrical (i'm pretty anal). I tried it with audyssey off and no difference.

Im thinking (and this sounds weird) it could even be my center channel. I havent had time to make a stand and the CS2 is so big i had to put it on the floor, vs directly in front of me. It kind of messes with my head.

I'll switch the cables, re run audyssey, etc and let you know. I'll even take a picture so you guys can see whats up!

Thanks a ton!

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crazyrob425

· #14 · Aug 17, 2011

Buy an SPL meter....
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2103667

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