# Problem with One Nearfield Monitor Louder than the Other



## patrick76 (Feb 20, 2016)

I'm having an issue where one of my nearfield reference monitors (biamplified) is louder than the other. I ruled out the cables, the interface, looked at my settings in the software, and I finally just disconnected the speakers and switched their locations and reconnected them and the problem followed the speaker (my left speaker was quieter and even after moving to the right speaker location it was still quiter). I might have to get some new monitors and honestly I've been thinking about it anyway, but I was going to do a substantial upgrade when I decided to get new ones and the good ones are quite expensive! Any ideas on what could cause this issue? Thanks!


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## muk (Feb 20, 2016)

Not long ago I had the same issue. It wasn't the speakers in my case, it occured on two different sets of stereo speakers. The problem was quite persistent, and as a temporary solution I inserted Bluecat's Gain Suite into my signal chain. It's freeware and lets you adjust for each channel individually. The culprit in the end was a windows setting. It's called 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device'. I unticked that box and both channels were the same volume again.


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## patrick76 (Feb 20, 2016)

muk said:


> It's called 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device'. I unticked that box and both channels were the same volume again.


Thanks for the reply! I tried unticking that just in case it was the cause of my problem (with a small bit of hope), but unfortunately it didn't fix my problem. It is odd, it sounds almost like one speaker is being run through some sort of filter that is muting a bunch of frequencies.


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## willbedford (Feb 20, 2016)

patrick76 said:


> It is odd, it sounds almost like one speaker is being run through some sort of filter that is muting a bunch of frequencies.


Sounds like a damaged tweeter or amp to me. That happened to my monitors a while ago. Luckily they were still in warranty, so I had the tweeter replaced for free.


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## muk (Feb 20, 2016)

patrick76 said:


> but unfortunately it didn't fix my problem



Thought as much as you wrote that the problem followed the speaker. Too bad.


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## patrick76 (Feb 20, 2016)

willbedford said:


> Sounds like a damaged tweeter or amp to me.


I think you are most likely correct, but I was hoping that was not the case. I suppose I should start considering what my budget will be for some new nearfield monitors. Was considering the Genelec 8050B, but maybe I will have to go a little less expensive and settle for the 8040b... perhaps I'll start a new thread about that soon...


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