Centering balance pot

[Herbertk]

Probably a noob question...

But since the balance pot does not have an indication of what is center is there a way I can measure it or do I just find the middle of the arc the dial makes ?

I was wondering if i can play a consistent tone and measure the output but not sure what I would be measuring / checking for

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Yes, you can play a 60Hz tone into your Moreplay and turn the volume pot up about half way.  Put one meter probe in one channel's output jack and the other meter probe in the other channel's output jack.  When the balance pot is perfectly set, you'll see 0V AC on your meter.

 

[Herbertk]

Yes, you can play a 60Hz tone into your Moreplay and turn the volume pot up about half way.  Put one meter probe in one channel's output jack and the other meter probe in the other channel's output jack.  When the balance pot is perfectly set, you'll see 0V AC on your meter.

Great thanks Paul !

 

[Doc B]

The balance pot is there to make small corrections for imbalances that may exist due, primarily, to mistracking pots but also small differences in tube gain between channels, level differences between channels in a source component, etc. So there is no arbitrary universal mark that could be applied to the panel. As a starting point one could play around with a split mono input signal and a meter on the outputs to find a level match between channels as PB suggests. But that will only be balanced at the mid level volume knob setting. Balance could be different at different volume levels, particularly very low ones. And even that does not take into account differences in sensitivity of one's ears, differences in speaker sensitivity, etc.

Bottom line, the best way to find balance is to listen and adjust to taste.

 

[David Joiner]

To Doc B.'s response I'd add speaker placement - in my setup, unfortunately, I've got the left speaker closer to a side wall, and furniture, more so than the right, so I seem to tend to have the balance set slightly to the left to get a centered sound.