Problem with stereo balance: is it monitors or my ears?

[LoveEnigma18]

Came across this video today where this guy is apparently talking about the same room problem which makes the sound appear to come more from the left. I searched a lot on this and most of the times it seems that the sound is left-heavy. I wonder why is that.

[BertKoor]

I wonder if I should set the back panel of my monitors to +4dB (which is the 12 o'clock position) or -10dB (which is the maximum setting). Guess it should be +4dB or around it for professional audio purpose as I think -10dB will get too loud. I am using Komplete Audio 6 as my audio interface.

I looked at the specs of Komplete6, which says balanced out level provided is +11.3dBu. Prof level is +4dBu, so it's on the loud side of already high level.
Having said that, ultimately it's just a pot meter. Set it at a level where it's convenient for you. If you find you set the master volume in your DAW at -20dB all the time, then it's set too low.
If you find one needs to be set a little bit higher than the other: if that works for you then it works for you.

I searched a lot on this and most of the times it seems that the sound is left-heavy. I wonder why is that.

Because more than half of the people are right-handed so they put stuff at the right side on their desk, easy to reach.

Kidding aside, I don't know.

My ears hear a little bit different. I use a telephone on my left ear because of that. I recall the first time I noticed that I was maybe 12 years old, way before tinnitus could have set in.

I'm aware of my imperfections, it's not a problem at all. And my room is not symmetrical, so the monitors sound not the same as well.

[LoveEnigma18]

I wonder if I should set the back panel of my monitors to +4dB (which is the 12 o'clock position) or -10dB (which is the maximum setting). Guess it should be +4dB or around it for professional audio purpose as I think -10dB will get too loud. I am using Komplete Audio 6 as my audio interface.

I looked at the specs of Komplete6, which says balanced out level provided is +11.3dBu. Prof level is +4dBu, so it's on the loud side of already high level.
Having said that, ultimately it's just a pot meter. Set it at a level where it's convenient for you. If you find you set the master volume in your DAW at -20dB all the time, then it's set too low.
If you find one needs to be set a little bit higher than the other: if that works for you then it works for you.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes, I did see the KA6 spec and was a little confused. When it says balanced output is +11.3dBu (it's actually about +9dBu for the older KA6 model that I am using, but that's OK), does it mean it is irrespective of the big volume knob on the top of the interface or does lowering the knob lower this level? Guess the latter is true, in which case I am not setting it at its maximum volume. It's just set half way on my interface.

I initially set both the speakers to +4dBu at the back, but later I reduced the level of the left speaker since it felt louder (instead of increasing the level of the quieter one).

The master channel of my DAW's Mixer is always set at 0 dB and I use the volume control at the top (FL Studio user) to control the loudness.

That said, these levels are not really a concern here, right? Or if so, could you please suggest any improvements based on the above information, especially from speakers and audio interface viewpoint?

I searched a lot on this and most of the times it seems that the sound is left-heavy. I wonder why is that.

Because more than half of the people are right-handed so they put stuff at the right side on their desk, easy to reach.

Kidding aside, I don't know.

Guess what? I am left-handed. And my desk is not right or left heavy. Although I feel that it is the room that's contributing to it, since on left side I have a bed with a mattress above which there is a window. On the right side, it is just a plain cement wall. Of course, I do have acoustic panels on either side and front corners (ceiling and back too).

My ears hear a little bit different. I use a telephone on my left ear because of that. I recall the first time I noticed that I was maybe 12 years old, way before tinnitus could have set in.

I'm aware of my imperfections, it's not a problem at all. And my room is not symmetrical, so the monitors sound not the same as well.

I understand. It must have been difficult initially? But it's appreciable that you have managed well to handle the imperfections. And speaking of my room too, as mentioned above, it is symmetrical in terms of walls but not so much in terms of things (window, bed, etc.)

[e@rs]

I also hear a tiny bit more to the left, so I always have the monitors in slightly asymmetrical positions to compensate. It definitely has to be something with my ears, because the effect it's obvious with headphones.

[mgw38]

This is most definitely the room or desk setup. Use room eq wizard (https://www.roomeqwizard.com/) to measure your speakers. It could be a speaker boundary interference on either side. Use psychoacoustic smoothing for the response graph in REW. The two graphs should be as close as possible. And check out the waterfall graphs if there is any issue with the reverb in your room.

You might also want to use the tone generator in REW and do a frequency sweep with both speakers on to check for problematic frequencies. Don’t freak out if you do that. There is a lot of comb filtering going on in any room. A very slow frequency sweep on very good speakers can feel a bit like things are wobbling even in a well treated room.

I am having a similar problem. Because if the way my room is setup the position of my speaker cannot be symmetrical. One of them is closer to the wall then the other. And that causes a quite significant difference in how loud they are perceived. People underestimate how much influence the position of a speaker can make. I managed to even things out in a workable way through eq-ing but that was quite a battle.

And people who are not trained to hear analytically usually don’t hear that difference.

[BertKoor]

When it says balanced output is +11.3dBu (it's actually about +9dBu for the older KA6 model that I am using, but that's OK), does it mean it is irrespective of the big volume knob on the top of the interface or does lowering the knob lower this level? Guess the latter is true, in which case I am not setting it at its maximum volume. It's just set half way on my interface.

In the end setting these levels is all about gain staging, which is about making maximal use of the available dynamical range.

Suppose you set the levels on your monitors at the maximum position. Now because that's too loud to listen to for prolonged periods, you compensate by setting the level on your interface or the master fader in your DAW lower - say 20dB lower. The result is that the top three bits are not used. Each bit is worth 6dB of dynamical range, so you go back from a usable dynamical range of eg 120dB to 102dB.
If it were an analog control instead of digital, the result is the same. The noise floor remains the same, so by lowering the level you have less dynamical range and so noise levels relatively go up.

So my advice would be to keep gains zero where possible, and reduce the level at the last point possible - that's at the amp in your monitors. You do want some spare gain in case you have something soft so you can raise the level at your interface a bit, without first having to reach at the back of your monitors in order to raise level of both of them. The 12 o'clock position would be a good start.

I think it's just out of convenience for the user that they labelled that point +4dBu and the max -10dBv. If you want it softer or louder, do that.

[LoveEnigma18]

Thank you for the suggestions, really appreciate it. It does seem that room setup is the major contributor here. The problem though is that it is not practical to move the things around for me, as it is a home studio setup and I have tried to arrange the things the best I could when starting out. The only reason I was not getting into those measurements is because I don't have a decent measurement mic. The only mic I have is SM58, which I am not sure would be sufficient.

My initial impression is that the Yamaha HS7 are sounding pretty good in my room. I mean no weird room modes or reverb. They are sounding tight and the bass is decent too. In fact, they seem to be sounding better than my old M-Audio BX5a Deluxe pair. They are still new, it's been only a week, and I haven't spent enough time with them, so will still need to listen more to my reference tracks for better judgement.

The only thing is I have turned the left speaker down to compensate for this issue.

[LoveEnigma18]

Thank you again for your advice. Yes, I understand your point about losing the dynamic range (lower SNR).

So, what I have done right now is that I have set both the speakers at +4 dBU (12 o'clock setting) as recommended in the Yamaha manual (one speaker is little less due to the room issue).

1. DAW case (ASIO drivers): I have the master fader of DAW Mixer always set to 0 dB. In this situation, I have two options to control the "volume" - first is the volume knob on the interface and second is the master "volume" knob at the top in FL Studio.

Possible improvement for this case: Right now, I need to have the interface volume knob a little above center position, so perhaps I should raise the speaker back panel volume a bit, so that I need to have to apply this much volume (gain) from the audio interface, right? Of course, if I turn up the speakers too much, the static noise will be more, so need to make sure that does not happen.

2. For normal music listening case (non-ASIO): I will turn up the Windows volume setting to its maximum (100%). In this situation, I can control the overall volume using my interface volume knob.

Is my understanding correct?

[BertKoor]

Sounds fine to me.

[LoveEnigma18]

Sounds fine to me.

Thank you.