On a few occasions, this is what i’ve come across. I get into the car of person, usually like 55+ in age, and there fade and balance is set to the left rear speaker. Now these are newer cars i’m talking about, not a 63’ Impala with one speaker in the dash. This has happened like 4 different times with 4 different people. Now I’m not saying that all older folks are doing this. But in my experience, this is what i’ve noticed. I just wonder why this is done and is it common in other areas of the country?
Just a guess -
It probably doesn’t have anything to do with them wanting to listen out of only the left rear speaker. My dad is in his 60s and couldn’t figure out what fade is if he sat in the car for a year.
What probably happens is the person tries to turn down the volume and ends up turning every dial/switch/slide that they can find all the way to the left, thus not only turning down the volume but also ending up with all the sound coming out of the left rear speaker.
Once again, just a WAG on my part!
Is there a correlation between this phenomenon and the one where old people seem to like driving down the highway in the left lane with their left blinker on?
I agree with pilot141. I am astonished on the settings I find in some people’s cars (and not necessarily old people). “Didn’t you notice all the sound was coming out of the right speaker?” “No, you mean it’s not supposed to be that way?” Most people don’t have an ear for sound. Look at how everybody put up with the crappy lo-fi mono sound of TVs all those years. Now they’re buying 6 channel home theater setups. Guess what happens to the settings on those in a few months? A waste of money.
Except that you’re not sitting equidistant between the speakers. You’re sitting right in front of the left speaker. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you should dial down the left side a little bit to achieve proper stereo imaging.