[Pierre_za]

Hi all,
I'm just curious how many people here have experienced the problem of the soundstage veering to the passenger side? It has been mentioned on the DIYMA site a few times but none of the solutions really worked for me, and with the E90 most folks tend to focus on just the midbass issue.

After having played with my MS8 for almost a year now, and having solved the midbass to satisfaction, my biggest problem is getting the imaging right. To summarize what I have and what I've experienced:

- E90 L7
- OEM underseats, sides & rears
- Morel Hybrid Ovation splits; Integra centre
- DSL Nordica 10" sealed sub venting through the ski hatch
- JL HD600/4 & HD750/1 (centre & sides & rears powered from MS8)
- Splits, centre & sides/rears HP 24dB/oct @ 180Hz, underseats LP 24dB/oct @ 75 Hz

When tuning without a centre speaker, the balance is fairly good, perhaps needing just one or two increments on the balance adjustment. However, with a centre in the mix it always veers strongly to the passenger side. Reducing centre level does not help. This isn't a wiring issue since the levels are all perfect when the MS8 is in Defeat mode. The balance tends to be fine in the passenger position too; don't know whether reflections from the steering wheel is messing up the sweeps.

There are only two solutions: 1) Move your head about 10" more inwards during the first sweep or 2) set the balance about midway between centre and maximum to the driver side. Covering drivers during sweeps doesn't help.

Trouble with the first solution is that it tends to mess up the phase. Balance and levels might be fine but the sound is rather fatiguing to listen to and typical of phasing problems. Trouble with solution2 is similar but not as severe, and it becomes very sensitive with source material.

I also found that the balance with a centre speaker is highly sensitive with FM radio, especially if the balance has already been adjusted. Every station seems to be at a different balance level! What may sound fine with one station is steered to the left/right on another. Once again, this is not prevalent with the MS8 in defeat, and much less noticeable when disabling the centre altogether.

Does anybody perhaps know of any other tips to assist with this?
On a more sobering note, of all the L7 E90 owners who eventually threw in the towel with the MS8, is there any common consensus on what they fell back to? Cleansweep/BitOne? I'm actually eyeing a DIY project with an Analog Devices SigmaDSP but it's quite a lot of work..