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Speaker and amp balance question?????

I just recieved my tweeters back from being matched and I am pleased with the results. What I noticed when I installed the tweeters and played music was that they sounded different so I switched the tweeters from one speaker to the other to find that my tweeters were fine and that the difference in sound was due to something else. In a diagnostic I switches the speaker cables left to right channel and right to left channelon my amp and upon listening I realised that both the channels in my anp(Pass X250) and my speakers crossovers were slightly different from each other and I was able to get the two speakers to sound extremely close to each other by switching the speakers themselves right to left and left to right. I am getting pretty balanced sound but my question is that is it normal for the speakers to be off by a noticable difference(when an inch from the speaker's tweeter). Before one channel was cleaner and one speakers tweeter was cleaner.. In both my amp and my speakers there is one side cleaner than the other so I put the cleaner speaker with the less clean channel of the amp and the less clean speaker with the cleaner side of the amp and the sound is pretty balanced. Are differences to this degree normal?They are subtle and not very noticable if at all noticable from the listening position.In fact you could not hear the differences two feet from the speakers but it was there. If my amp were identical channels the sound would be off and if my speakers were identical sounding I would have a less balanced sounding system. Does this make sense?
mitchb
mitchb's avatar
mitchb OP
212 posts
 
I should mention that I love my Pass gear and if I could change equipment my Pass gear would remain. I might have XA160 monoblocks or something exotic but I like the Pass sound.My point of my posting above is that it is not uncommon for an amp to have a slight noise in the right channel. Come to think of it all my amps regardless of environment or brand or associated equipment did this.
gregm
3,021 posts
 
Mitchb -- either I misunderstood the issue (probably) or there's nothing "wrong" with yr system (hopefully).

Correct me if wrong: using a mono signal OR (particularly) a pure sine, you can discern no differences. (I assume you've tried pink noise and tweet frequencies.)
IF there is SOME difference, then it's due to the tweets --you shouldn't have audible differences coming fm the equip(and asai can tell you don't) -- or you have one damnation of an ear! Unless it's just the connecting wire...
mitchb's avatar
mitchb OP
212 posts
 
Gregm,
I think what it is that I noticed is when looking for it and right up to the tweerer I can hear a little noise which sounds almost like rf. It is the noise that is present in the right channel even if only the amp is hooked up to the speakers or the preamp is muted. I get an ever so slight hum from the tweeter/midrange.(this noise is only noticable if you put your ear against the driver 2" away) I think this noise, which is normal, is apparent in the tweeters when listening for it. When I switched the speakers left to right and right to left the difference in my speakers compensated for the difference in my amp. I believe both my speakers and my amp to be within spec and the difference I noticed would probably not be noticed or at least be of concern to most people. Swapping the speakers appears to have balanced out very fine differences in speaker and amp channels. The reason I noticed it before to a larger degree is that I had the cleaner speaker to the cleaner channel of the amp and the less clean speaker to the less clean channel and if the differnce was lets say for example 3% one way and 3 % the other way then I had a difference of6%.By swapping the speakersd the difference is closer to zero as the differences in amp and the difference in speaker are now the same on both sides makingg the sound more balanced. Does this make sense?
lacee
811 posts
 
If you have the same problem with different amps,then the problem is elsewhere,cables,pre-amp channel, power cord,bad ground at power source.Keep trouble shooting.
Not trying to be a jerk, but could you have a hearing problem in your right ear?I have less in one ear.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Do you have the volume turned up with no source music playing when making your test?

If so, you will be hearing the noise floor of your system.

It seems quite possible and accceptable that you could have slightly different noise floor levels/signals in one channel versus the other at these kind of extremes (listening at 2" distance with volume turned up). At this extreme, you might be hearing something that is actually 95 db lower than regular amplified music at the amp output and and therefore something which is quite normal in any system and you should ignore.

Once your speakers start playing music at reasonable SPL levels, then your noise floor will jump from ultra low levels of the CD player/amplifier to around 60 db below the rest of the music....So you won't even hear this tiny signal!

Why is this? Typicaly even the best high end speaker/amp combinations, playing at reasonable sound levels, have all kinds of IM, harmonic and other room borne distortions that raise the general noise floor to around 60 db ....unfortunately this is a limitation of mechanical vibrating transducer systems in a room....and you just have to live with it until they invent something better.
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