Component speakers. Right side slightly quieter than the left.

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

As the title suggests I've got a pair of component speakers in my car (Focal PS165's) and the right side is getting slightly less power than the left and I'm wondering what is usually the most likely scenario for this to happen? RCA's? Or the wiring itself? At first I had them hooked up to my Audison LRX5.1k and this is where I first noticed it, but I just attributed it to the fact that the amp was getting a little quirky and would on rare occasions cut the speakers in and out/fade one side.

But tonight I hooked them up to a brand new AQ 200.2 and I'm getting the same symptom and after tuning, I measured the voltage output from the left and right channels and I was getting 17.6v on the left and 16.2 (or 16.6v) on the right side, during a 1khz sine wave. It's not a HUGE difference. Just enough that I have to balance the speakers 1 notch to the right in order to make it sound "balanced".

Wiring for speakers is all 16awg I believe and all soldered connections, and everything is wired properly and in phase. It still sounds amazing and get lots of midbass. Just a little nagging that the right side is getting slightly less power.

Suggestions?

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[jar1zx 10+ year member]

Check RCA's see what they read, check speaker ohms, you using phone/ MP3 player? 3.5mm jack? Check that. Lots of things it could be tell us more

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Swap channels so the left side gets a little less. Better that way anyway.

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

Check RCA's see what they read, check speaker ohms, you using phone/ MP3 player? 3.5mm jack? Check that. Lots of things it could be tell us more

I almost exclusively use my iPod touch 5 direct through USB to play my music and most of the music is high bitrate Mp3. Sometimes I will use A2DP through Bluetooth as well. Never the 3.5mm jack for this system. As for speaker ohms. When I put them in after wiring the crossovers and running the final wiring to the back i believe both sides registered a 4ohm resistance. Although im not 100% sure, thinking about it now I wanna say one set was reading 3.8ohms. But like I said I'm not certain but I will check that today. If that turns out to be the case is that normal ever to have a slight variance in the resistance in the load like that? Or should they both be exactly 4ohms bang on?

EDIT: Forgot to mention. When I first measured the voltage changed it was playing a 1khz sine wave from the SMD DD1 setup CD.

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

Swap channels so the left side gets a little less. Better that way anyway.

Why would that be better? Then wouldn't I hear the right side more dominantly? I want everything to sound centered. I don't want to be able to tell a difference in where its coming from.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Why would that be better? Then wouldn't I hear the right side more dominantly? I want everything to sound centered. I don't want to be able to tell a difference in where its coming from.

Since the left side is closer to you, it already sounds louder simply because of physical proximity. It's more dominant in the higher frequencies (like 1.5khz and up), but sound follows the inverse square law. Closer = louder. I attenute my near side mids and tweets by -2 or -3db on purpose. Yours will just be a lucky coincidence of staggered output.

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

Since the left side is closer to you, it already sounds louder simply because of physical proximity. It's more dominant in the higher frequencies (like 1.5khz and up), but sound follows the inverse square law. Closer = louder. I attenute my near side mids and tweets by -2 or -3db on purpose. Yours will just be a lucky coincidence of staggered output.

Well I suppose it can't hurt to give it a shot and see if I like the way it sounds. But then again. If I swap channels the sounds that are supposed to come from the left will be coming from the right though. That would fu** me up haha. Cuz there's plenty of songs that I have that have distinct left and right channel spans. Having them come out of the opposite side after listening to them as they were intended for so long would probably just sound weird Lol.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Well I suppose it can't hurt to give it a shot and see if I like the way it sounds. But then again. If I swap channels the sounds that are supposed to come from the left will be coming from the right though. That would fu** me up haha. Cuz there's plenty of songs that I have that have distinct left and right channel spans. Having them come out of the opposite side after listening to them as they were intended for so long would probably just sound weird Lol.

Lol. Swap the RCA's too, man.

Well... that is if it isn't an RCA problem to begin with. If it is, you won't have to swap both, I guess.

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

Lol. Swap the RCA's too, man.
Well... that is if it isn't an RCA problem to begin with. If it is, you won't have to swap both, I guess.

Wouldn't swapping the wires and RCA's essentially just put me right back where I was? haha

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Wouldn't swapping the wires and RCA's essentially just put me right back where I was? haha

Yeah... I kinda confused myself there. Lol.

You know what I'm saying, damnit!

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

Yeah... I kinda confused myself there. Lol.
You know what I'm saying, damnit!

Not exactly no haha. Cuz the one way you described it puts the sounds coming out of the wrong channels, and the other way puts it back the same way it is now but with reversed wiring. So no...I don't really know what your saying haha.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Not exactly no haha. Cuz the one way you described it puts the sounds coming out of the wrong channels, and the other way puts it back the same way it is now but with reversed wiring. So no...I don't really know what your saying haha.

Oh lawd.

If it's an RCA thing, just swap the RCAs. If it's an amp channel thing you have to swap both so that left is left and right is right.

Say your output is #1 and #2 and #2 is the lower volume one. Your RCAs are L and R. Right now you have L on #1 and R on #2 . If it's an RCA thing, swapping RCAs will put R on #1 and L on #2 . Easy peasy. But if it's an amp channel problem, you're still playing the right side on the lower channel because the right side speakers are still hard wired to #2 . So you have to swap both the RCAs and the speaker wires.

There's (4) possibile combinations of speaker wire and RCA configuration.

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

Oh lawd.
If it's an RCA thing, just swap the RCAs. If it's an amp channel thing you have to swap both so that left is left and right is right.

And by "swap" RCA's do you mean replace or just swap the left RCA for the right? And theres no way it could be an amp issue at this point as this is a brand new AQ amp. Only used it for the very first time yesterday.

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

And by "swap" RCA's do you mean replace or just swap the left RCA for the right? And theres no way it could be an amp issue at this point as this is a brand new AQ amp. Only used it for the very first time yesterday.

I ninja'd you.

I mean switch the colors. Yeah... swap left and right. Not swap out the RCAs. Lol.

Damnit. I'm getting confused again.

 

[gamehawk55 10+ year member]

I ninja'd you.
I mean put swap the colors. Not swap RCAs. Lol.

Damnit. I'm getting confused again.

But just swapping the right for the left on the RCA's will result in the left being the right and the right being the left. Which is a problem. And If I were to swap both the RCA's and the wires on the amp channels....Then it puts it back EXACTLY the way it was before essentially with the right channel still being lower than the left.