stereo balance indicator - for the purist

july/august 1984 for the purist Mechanical deficiencies that affect the sound reproduction in a stereo amplifier are perhaps the last you think about when problems are en- countered. And yet, they play a larger role than is generally known. True, their effects are normally so small that few of us notice them, or ascribe them to something else. Most of such deficiencies can be traced back to the stereo volume control, in which the two resistance P tracks are often out of step. The consequent difference in volume be- tween the two channels can normally be evened up by the balance control. If you wish to determine the exact difference, the present stereo balance indicator should be right up your street! Simply connect this to the left-hand and right-hand loudspeaker output terminals of the amplifier arid feed equal signals — preferably sinusoidal — to the two input chan- nels of the amplifier. If then the signals at the two loudspeaker ter- minals are of exactly the same level, t...