one way to test balance of speakers

[blanc]

Hi,

I want to use the following steps to test whether my both bookshelf speakers are balanced because I always feel the right channel is louder.

1. Play the left and right single tone sound separately

2. Use an App to measure the sound pressure levels. First 10cm from the speakers to make sure the outputs are the same level. Then measure the SPLs at the listener site. If there are different SPLs my room acoustic environment must have an issue.

Please give some tips to this plan. And some questions:

1. Which frequency shall be used ? Where to find such single tones?

2. Are there recommended SPL Apps for Android smartphones or tablets?

 

[Redacted]

Play music then swap the cables at the back of your amp and verify the louder sound moves - that's going be to down to either source material or an internal channel balance issue.
Swap just the speakers over - if louder side moves too, it's one speaker being louder than the other.

 

[staticV3]

You need to find a recording solution that is free of auto gain mechanisms.

For example an Apple headphone adapter combined with USB Audio Recorder Pro would work.

Then play Pink noise on your system (you can make .wav files using Room EQ Wizard).

Finally, use the Moving Microphone Method to capture the system's loudness and response.

No special microphone is required for this if all you care about is the difference between Left and Right. You can even use an in-line mic from a pair of earphones.

Then drag and drop the recordings into Room EQ Wizard's RTA window set to RTA 1/48 oct Mode and it will turn the noise recordings into response graphs from which you can read channel imbalance.

You can plot just the response difference using Trace Arithmetic -> A/B.

To be clear: this will plot both the difference in frequency response (tonality), and the level difference if there is one.

 

[Redacted]

Open a track in Audacity (et al.)
Convert it to mono & save.
Play that track on your kit - sound equal L to R or not?