Windows 7: Music from songs is not balanced through headphones!

Hey everyone,

I am wondering why some songs are not balanced through headphones. I thought it was my Bose QC15s not producing balanced songs and then I thought it was my version of the song that was not producing balanced songs, but it was in fact the actual song.



I was listening to "What Makes your Beautiful" by One Direction and it is clearly louder on the right side of the headphones...I do not know why.

Is every song different in that it chose to produce more sound through the right headphone instead of balancing the audio?

PS: Which song (any song) that produces a clean balanced sound coming from both sides of the headphone? I want to test my QC15s and make sure it is indeed balanced from both sides. I tried many songs and it does seem like my right side of the QC15 is producing a bit of a louder sound..

PSS: My audio is indeed balance through Control Centre.

Thanks in advance!

Find audio that's in Mono, not Stereo. If the right side is still louder when playing something that is in Mono, then there could be something wrong with the headphones.

Thanks for the info! Is it fine if I converted my Stereo songs into Mono?

PS: Why is it with Stereo songs, some songs I notice the vocals are more present on the ride side of the headphone and then with other songs, it's more present on the left headphone..

Is there any specs I should look at when buying songs? I try and get 320kbps songs..Or is each song truly different and making the song more present on one side of the headphone was on purpose?

It is indeed ok if you convert what you have to mono just for testing purposes.


I'm not sure, but I agree that it doesn't make sense for the vocals to be stronger in either the left or right channel. Although, I guess it's possible that that's the way they wanted it (meaning the band, or the musicians, or the singer, or the producer, or even the sound engineer).

For an extreme example, I've heard songs where they intentionally have the drums in only the left or the right channel and everything else is in the other channel. Unusual mixes like this are done on purpose for a certain effect. So perhaps you're hearing it exactly as it was meant to be heard - I don't know. However, if this is a consistent problem even for songs that you know should not be that way (from past experience), then I would have to be saying at that point that there's a problem somewhere.

I recommend trying the same songs with stereo speakers and then listening very carefully and literally very closely to see if the same thing is happening. You may need to put your head in the middle between the speakers.

Of course, I can also say that if you have songs that are perfectly fine, then that would be a sign that they are meant to be mixed that way.

Can I confirm which side seems louder with an Equalizer? I do notice that when I realize the right side is louder through my headphones, the Equalizer does confirm that (higher bars on the right side)...I am using the Dolby Home Theater V4.

I guess it's not my Bose QC15 at fault then?

PS: I tried something else. I played an movie through VLC player, and during a scene, the music was clearly more present through my right headphone. But when I reversed the audio, it was more present in the left headphone now. Does this prove my QC15 is not the fault?

Overall, I wonder why songs and or movies make the volume more present on one side of the headphone, it's not like it is 5.1 surround or anything...it's only two headphones.

I honestly don't know what's going on here, but it looks like you did indeed discover that your headphones are in perfect working order.