Not brands but left and right…
Today with the nice weather I was compelled to swap my speakers over (ATC SCM11s) as the prevailing sunlight into the room does favour one side more than the other and so it’s become a habit to swap the speakers over every couple of years thus keeping the cabinets the same hue.
I don’t know if it actually makes a difference although after eight years the speakers appear to have kept the same shade but today I noticed a change in the presentation with better definition of the bass notes.
This obviously led to a trial of swapping back and forth, along with repeating a few known tracks and I’ve decided that there is certainly a preferred orientation.
Has anyone ever tried this or should I assume that when I told my partner about this revelation and was met with “the look” that it is just my imagination at play?
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I contemplated this because of the way afternoon sun sweeps across my living space. In the end I couldn’t see a difference and have left it well alone for the past 14 years.
Some woods darken with exposure to light, including cherry which is a common loudspeaker veneer. Ash, oak and other common timbers used tend not to do this.
Some wood finishes (varnish, oil, lacquer) have a UV filter added to reduce this darkening. ATC could probably tell you if this is the case with your speakers, although the cabinets are made in the far east, not in-house like some of their higher models.
Several years ago a loudspeaker manufacturer from Germany called Monitor db advised its customers to swap left and right speakers on a regular basis. According to them, and I hope my memory is correct, bass signals are frequently mixed to favor one channel, resulting in a different amount of movement for the two bass drivers. They claimed a progressively looser bass character as a result. Maybe they were onto something and you are hearing just that.
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Could it be temperature related? Just theorizing
If one of the speakers is in the sun more frequently than the other, maybe the temperature inside the cabinet causes small differences (e.g. flexibility of drivers or small changes in cross-over electronics)?
Maybe also play mono recordings?
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I’m no teccie, but I understand that all half decent speakers are db level matched in the factory - so that each has an output as close as possible to the other in the pair.
If your’s have a slight mismatch, could this potentially explain the phenomenon that you describe?