RTi8s - why does left sound different from right?

Spiderninja

Hi, a newbie to HT. I have a pair of RTi8s that I'm running with a Pioneer 1015TX. When I run the auto MCCAC calibration system, and the amp is doing test tones, I notice that the left speaker sounds crisper, with more high end while the right seems to have more mids and bass. Is this normal?

speakergeek

It could be wall reflections coloring the sound a bit. Are your speakers close to a wall or a corner? Make sure your fronts are both properly wired (pos. and neg.)

VR3

Next time when someone calls...

See if you can hear better out of your left ear than your right.

BrentMcGhee

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Next time when someone calls...

See if you can hear better out of your left ear than your right.

VR3

Im not kidding though...

I can hear much better out of my left ear than my right...

Spiderninja

Hi, yes, both are properly wired. No, I think my hearing is fine. It's an open concept living room with a 1/2 wall about 5 feet away from my right front. Are the speakers supposed to sound identical during test tones?

Demiurge

Spiders have a great history here. Good luck with your problem.

MADGSF

If you think it's a speaker problem maybe try switching them to see if the problem follows.

danger boy

yes, do what MADGSF says.. swap the left and right speakers.. and see what the outcome is. you may have a bad tweeter in one of your speakers. not that the tweeter failed.. but it could have a loose wire somewhere. Or maybe the crossover is defective in that one speaker.

BjornB17

Vr3MxStyler2k3 wrote:

Im not kidding though...

I can hear much better out of my left ear than my right...

Me too! And its not just subtle, but very obvious. I believe its because i use the right ear to listen to the telephone.

The subwoofer is placed no the right side of my room, i notice when i turn around (so the subwoofer is to my left), the bass sounds much deeper. Also when sitting between the two front speakers, the left one sounds louder and better, but if i turn around, the opposite is true.

StopherJJ1980

Spiderninja wrote:

Hi, a newbie to HT. I have a pair of RTi8s that I'm running with a Pioneer 1015TX. When I run the auto MCCAC calibration system, and the amp is doing test tones, I notice that the left speaker sounds crisper, with more high end while the right seems to have more mids and bass. Is this normal?

Spider, I had this EXACT same problem with my RTi8's. I have since solved it and am glad some others have mentioned it as it gives me more evidence that I wasnt just nuts (although it is still very likely ) In fact I posted an almost identical question or thread awhile back.. I noticed this mostly in test tones as you did, one speaker was bright and lous, one was dull. I was listening to the Eagles DVD and noticed the one channel being much more prominient and thought it was little weird and test tones confirmed my thoughts so......

I eventually just ended up buying another RTi8 so I could bring it home and test it out see if it matched up well with the bright or dull one. Long story short the new speaker matched well with the brighter of the original two. Then I just returned the dull speaker. Now they both match up well.

I am still mystified as to why this was, as both tweeters and all drivers worked well on both speakers. The serial numbers of the original 8's were in sequence so it wasnt like they were made at different times or anything. The best I can hypothesize is a problem with the crossovers or something, but who knows.

So my suggestion is to just do as I did and return one (the duller one most likely if your problem is like mine) and get a new one. Other than that they are great speakers, I love em and havent had any problems since. Good luck

zombie boy 2000

here's some food for thought....
Recently, I felt I was experiencing something akin to what you may (or may not) be experiencing with your left and right channels -- the right speaker seemed somewhat brighter than the right, though not so much that i believed something to be wrong with either the crossover or tweeter.
Aspiring tweeker that I am, I simply could not leave well enough alone and decided to switch the left and right speaker cables on the receiver, and as I was still experiencing the same difference in tone (however slight), I could rule out both IC's and AVR. Next up, switching the actual speakers (bad news: Monitor 70's; good news: banana plugs). And whaddya know, Diamond Joe? Same discrepancy...:p
Which leads me to one of two conclusions, the first one being room acoustics -- my gear is by no means "free range", and exists (peacefully mindya, so don't call services) in a relatively small environment.:D Thus any "furniture differences" between the right and left side seem to greatly magnify any possible changes to tonal qualities.
My other theory, and maybe some others here can attest to this -- or laugh me straight off the forum, is that i have a tendency to place melody where there really isn't any. That is to say that when a simple test tone switches from left to right, my brain has a tendency to create something "musical" out of it. So for example, the technically neutral notes ascend/descend in scale, as my brain trys to make sense of them. This has always been the case with me, and I imagine it is a quite common phenom. If I'm driving down the median, and I'm a'hittin those little bumps -- I'll hear a tune (nothing spectacular, but never the exact same sound). My wife experiences pretty much the same thing. Random sounds just tend to take on a melody when the mind processes them -- I guess this is just how the brain makes sense and imposes some sort of order on it's enviroment.
Think of that one commercial a couple of years back, where someone was driving down the road -- and he/she kept hearing music and/or beats with the construction, basketballs dribbling, left/right blinkers, etc.
Again, just some food for thought.:o

StopherJJ1980

zombie boy 2000 wrote:

here's some food for thought....
Recently, I felt I was experiencing something akin to what you may (or may not) be experiencing with your left and right channels -- the right speaker seemed somewhat brighter than the right, though not so much that i believed something to be wrong with either the crossover or tweeter.
Aspiring tweeker that I am, I simply could not leave well enough alone and decided to switch the left and right speaker cables on the receiver, and as I was still experiencing the same difference in tone (however slight), I could rule out both IC's and AVR. Next up, switching the actual speakers (bad news: Monitor 70's; good news: banana plugs). And whaddya know, Diamond Joe? Same discrepancy...:p
Which leads me to one of two conclusions, the first one being room acoustics -- my gear is by no means "free range", and exists (peacefully mindya, so don't call services) in a relatively small environment.:D Thus any "furniture differences" between the right and left side seem to greatly magnify any possible changes to tonal qualities.
My other theory, and maybe some others here can attest to this -- or laugh me straight off the forum, is that i have a tendency to place melody where there really isn't any. That is to say that when a simple test tone switches from left to right, my brain has a tendency to create something "musical" out of it. So for example, the technically neutral notes ascend/descend in scale, as my brain trys to make sense of them. This has always been the case with me, and I imagine it is a quite common phenom. If I'm driving down the median, and I'm a'hittin those little bumps -- I'll hear a tune (nothing spectacular, but never the exact same sound). My wife experiences pretty much the same thing. Random sounds just tend to take on a melody when the mind processes them -- I guess this is just how the brain makes sense and imposes some sort of order on it's enviroment.
Think of that one commercial a couple of years back, where someone was driving down the road -- and he/she kept hearing music and/or beats with the construction, basketballs dribbling, left/right blinkers, etc.
Again, just some food for thought.:o

Funny you should mention this. This again goes under my "I thought it was just me..." heading. In fact I was aware this might be the issue with aforementioned problem. In fact I had to sometimes get up or take a minute away to kind of 'clear' my hearing memory to make sure it wasnt just my expectations biasing my hearing when listening to test tones over and over. I thought it might be my brain 'making' a ascending/descending scale, which it can do sometimes. This is really a **** when Im trying to tune my guitar by ear too. But in the end I determined there was a definite difference between the two, this only became more obvious when I got the new speaker to compare it to. But Im glad to know Im not the only one who does this or think this happens.

mldennison

StopherJJ1980 wrote:

when listening to test tones over and over.

well here might be your problem, why are you acually listening to the test tones, just use a meter! it'll definately drive you nuts trying to match all the tones by ear and in my experience, it seems the more i listen, the worst i end up making things. if you spent all the money on the speakers/reveiver then spend the extra $30 on a meter.

btw - i definately do the same thing with hearing melodies when there is nothing, the rattle of the lab equipment here at work sometimes does that to me