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I would never buy a preamp with balance control.
Last week we picked on tone controls, so this week, we'll put the spotlight on the balance knob. Do you use it in your system? Is it at any setting other than dead center?
Good music, good system, I don't miss 'em. But, I would rather listen to a boombox while working in the garage than have nothing at all; some systems require a bit of firm correction. I really liked the uptilt/downtilt style controls found on some Quad and Luxman products (the Lux Lab Reference Series of the late 1970's, for example) and find that generally that's all the correction needed to compensate for bad program material. *uptilt/downtilt shifts the spectrum up or down by at most 2dB, selectable and typically hinged at about 1K (so a 1dB downtilt results in: -1dB at 20Hz and +1dB at 20K, for example). In other words, I don't need 'em with properly selected gear but I'm not afraid of being caught with lesser gear or bad software.
I Dont see any need for a balance control since, when listening to music i can sit in the perfect position between both speakers on a comfy ;-) chair. And also on my Musical Fidelity equipment there is not balance and EQ (no need for it also)
Yes, I use it quite a bit. I mostly listen to LPs, and find that not all recordings have the balance correct. Even the same recording on different labels can be shifted on one recording and okay on the other. I would not buy a preamp without one.
It really would bug me to use the balance control unless i just HAD to because of no other option. I just dont feel right about it, so i try my best to balance the speakers and room by careful placement. I have a small room 11'x11' and square to boot, but i achieve a fair amount of uniformity with my Martin Logan Aerius' by keeping everything as symetrical as possible and measuring carefully. I also try and avoid the balance control since it might add non-uniformities in the signal.. but if you HAVE to, you HAVE to, i guess.
Easily the most worthless control on any preamp. I mean, really. Who hasn't set up their system so that the "sweet spot" is balanced? Who cares about other listening positions? Yet, what happened to any sort of mode control? At least being able to switch into mono has uses at times, especially for system diagonostics.
I must admit that I hate it when I am forced to touch the balance control, but when that central image seems, well, not centered, even after taking great pains to capture first reflections and other acoustic treatment, I will tweak it a bit. Not sure if it's my room or my ears! In any case, I hate having to touch it!
I have what must be the weirdest room configuration ever for trying to listen to music. I rent a tiny little shack-type home (mmm, maybe 550 square feetit's veerry cheap)and the living room is neither square, rectangular, or any other normal layout you could think of. It is more like a figure 8in other words two tiny little not square or rectangular areas which are pinched in the middle. (I think it must have been designed to be a separate living room and dining room adjacent to one anotherfor extremely tiny people). I gave up trying to use the balance function when one day it made it sound like the left channel was coming from a bedroom on the other side of a wall. I am not kidding. Where's MY computer program to optimize this unholy sonic dilemma? (Strangely enough, my friends all love to listen at my home, as there seem to be about 100 sweet spots. It even sounds ok when you are in the loo!
What's the point of adjusting the balance control, if your amp/preamp works fine? The artists record songs just as they intend us to hear the musicwithout the added distortion from equalizers, tone control, or balance control. Drop the needle and let it play! For those poor souls limited to mere CD players, there's no need to ajust the balance. You don't have to buy a Michel Gyrodec to appreciate vinyl, a Rega Planar 3 will suffice.