Sometimes the simplest solution...Speaker imbalance

rotobadger

rotobadger

Suffering AZ Cardinals Fan
Subscriber
Thought I’d share my somewhat embarrassing story.

For the last few days I’ve had a channel imbalance with my system. Didn’t matter the source (CD or Vinyl) the amp (4 different amps in my system), or the azimuth adjustment on my carts.

My right speaker was louder than the left. I swapped speakers to opposite sides. Same result. I switched speaker wires to reverse the output. Still, the right speaker was louder. I was getting very frustrated as there was little left to adjust to diagnose the issue.

So...it’s been very hot here in Phoenix and we’ve been making use of our swimming pool. Went to the doctor today. She looked inside my left ear. Ew! Impacted ear wax! She flushed it thoroughly and remove quite a bit of blockage.

Guess what? My speaker balance is perfect tonight.

Sometime it’s a miracle I make it through the day without stabbing myself in the eye or fall down a manhole cover.

My wife, of course, thought this was hilarious as I was up late last night crawling around switching wires and doing “critical listening”.

Sigh.

Wondered if anyone else has had a “D’oh!” Moment with their setup too.
 
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Yes. I thought something was wrong with my receiver, and my salk speaker ribbon tweeter because the right tweeter seemed lower in level. I have a syringe that I use to clean out ears and after flushing the wax out, everything was back to normal.
 
bkatbamna said:
Yes. I thought something was wrong with my receiver, and my salk speaker ribbon tweeter because the right tweeter seemed lower in level. I have a syringe that I use to clean out ears and after flushing the wax out, everything was back to normal.
Click to expand...
But it was ear blockage?
 
I suppose if your wife had listened and said that the sound was well-balanced, you might have figured it out sooner.

As for ear wax, I was taken to the ENT doctor when I was 12, to clear my ears of earwax. A bunch of wax was washed out. When I got out of the doctor's office, I could hear reverberations in the hallway, almost though I heard air currents, is the way I thought it sounded. I could hear things I never could have heard before.

When my dad asked if he should take be back to school, I said no, let's go home. Of course, I spent my time at home immediately listening to music to check what I could hear now that I couldn't hear earlier. Seems like the "super-hearing" effect disappeared fairly quickly. :(
 
Well it was good that you had a Doctor's appointment right away. And not a month out.
You may have sold and bought different gear.
Glad you got that all worked out. :)
 
I've learned that some days my ears just don't work right. It could be allergies or simply driving with the windows open all day. I know the condition of my system and how it should sound. If it doesn't sound right I blame my ears before anything else.

A few years ago I started going deaf in one ear. I was told I needed a hearing aid but I said no way. I finally got to a good ENT to look and she corrected it with a tube through my eardrum to drain liquid. A 10 minute office procedure and I was back in the game.
 
It's a bit of a conundrum - you're not supposed to put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear, yet it needs cleaning from time to time.

My thing is to GENTLY use a Q-tip about once every fortnight. And then, I make certain I place my fingers about 1'' from the end of the tip, ensuring I don't jab my eardrum, which I have done in my misspent youth.
 
Sticking q-tips in your ears is not a good idea. As onwardjames said, you can cause some damage.
I too have trouble with earwax. My approach is when washing my hair in the shower I work the shampoo into my ears till it acts like an earplug, let it soak while finishing my shower, than rinse at the end. I do this daily.

Good luck, Mark
 
Stereodiver said:
Sticking q-tips in your ears is not a good idea. As onwardjames said, you can cause some damage.
I too have trouble with earwax. My approach is when washing my hair in the shower I work the shampoo into my ears till it acts like an earplug, let it soak while finishing my shower, than rinse at the end. I do this daily.

Good luck, Mark
Click to expand...

Hmm. Interesting. I tend to trap water in my left ear canal, due to what I think is neck misalignment (lots of chiropractic visits that end with fluid coming out of that ear, ewww) and what my ear nose and throat doctor called a "dogleg" canal.

But might give this a shot.
 
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