Center image for vocals

[amit11]

Hi Friends,

On my new stereo system I observed something and hence confused whether it is normal or something wrong.

Center imaging for vocals is there, however this is what happens

When I move my face slightly off-center to right or left by 1-2 cms, i feel the vocals are more open and the sound is coming from front as usual. It sounds good.


However when I keep my face exactly at the center, i notice the quality of vocals has slightly decreased.
--> It sounds as if some frequency cancellation is happening and vocals are not very clear.
--> The brightness in vocals get reduced and i can feel some/little amount of warmth/bass has entered in the vocals.
--> The vocals feel as if we are hearing from a headphone, and don't sound as if they are coming from front. Not exact figures but around 50% from front and 50% inside the head.


In short, vocals are sounding better when face is slightyl off center.

 

[rohitmusic]

Check the speaker polarity.

Online Stereo Polarity (Phase) Sound Test

 

[amit11]

I have checked the polarity and seems fine.


Also I observed that the problem which I am mentioning, seems to be slightly reduced. Now I am not sure whether my ears have got adjusted to this sound, or is it room acoustics coming into play, or speaker issue, speakers break-in in progress etc.

Then I thought to check the same thing in car speakers. I played those same songs in car and moved my face at the center. There also i felt similar issue but may be not to that level, but yes same feeling/issue i got.

Listening regularly/daily to see what impressions i get.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Your room ,the gear arrangement ,your doors and windows and yourself is perfectly symmetric w r t the speaker center line ? Both of your ears have perfectly same hearing?

Hi Friends,

On my new stereo system I observed something and hence confused whether it is normal or something wrong.

Center imaging for vocals is there, however this is what happens

When I move my face slightly off-center to right or left by 1-2 cms, i feel the vocals are more open and the sound is coming from front as usual. It sounds good.


However when I keep my face exactly at the center, i notice the quality of vocals has slightly decreased.
--> It sounds as if some frequency cancellation is happening and vocals are not very clear.
--> The brightness in vocals get reduced and i can feel some/little amount of warmth/bass has entered in the vocals.
--> The vocals feel as if we are hearing from a headphone, and don't sound as if they are coming from front. Not exact figures but around 50% from front and 50% inside the head.


In short, vocals are sounding better when face is slightyl off center.

 

[soulforged]

You can play a mono track or if you are using a computer as source, configure it to mono and play a song. Try something with mainly vocals. This should appear dead center. Leave the depth for a moment and concentrate on the centering. This is a function of your speaker placement wrt the side and rear walls, your listening position, furniture, room setup etc. Try adjusting the speaker positions or your listening position till you are happy with the centering. Sometime it need not be entirely symmetric...

I had a similar issue where my soundstage was tending towards left, it actually got a bit better when I moved my right speaker up a bit (as suggested by Abhishek of Audio Dynamics)...

Hope this helps...

 

[hydra]

To add to what the other FMs have said, this could be because of:

1) Difference in the angles at which you've turned the left and right speakers in towards the listening position, or

2) One speaker being closer to you than the other, while you're in the listening position.

It will most likely be because of something to do with the acoustics of the room or the furniture in the room, necessitating correction/compensation in the speaker placement.

 

[rohitmusic]

I was going to suggest towing in of speakers or speaker positioning but that did not hold true because you said you find it better if you move slightly to left OR right so this did'nt look like speaker firing direction issue. What you described closely matches the out of phase sound pattern. (especially the sound coming from inside head part)

BUT You also mentioned that you feel similar in you car too...
Have you tried listening to some other sterio setup? Do you feel the same?

In a properly setup sterio system - the vocals should be dead center. They could be placed slightly behind and deeper into the "soundstage" or on the speakers positioning line themselves or slightly "forward" depending on recording.

You can try following:
1. Try some other track - this will eliminate issue with track itself
2. Try towing in the speakers (make both drivers face you and then slightly adjust their angle of firing move them to face slightly outwards till you feel its right) you can also experiment with you listening distance from the back wall/speakers.
3. What you are feeling weird may actually be how HiFi is supposed to sound with vocals being deeper/forward in the soundstage and you might just be getting used to it. When you move left then do you hear more vocals coming from the left speaker and hence you like it? or when you are in dead center it is the steriographic images that is causing concerns?

Since you feel same in your car too makes me wonder if room or setup itself has anything to do with it. In my experience a sterio setup is more sensitive to listening positioning as compared to hearing in my car which is like sitting in a box with sound coming from all directions due to reflections.

cheers!

 

[amit11]

Just to make it more clear:

a) There are no issues in vocals sounding center.

b) Its when the listening position, my face, is exactly in center that this odd feeling comes in. The vocals sound different and to some extent sound like coming from inside the head.

 

[msaab90]

Could it be the reflections from hard floor, or table causing this. Can you put a rug between speakers and the listening position?