Balanced headphone amplifiers

Balance adjustment

— the presence of balance adjustment in the design of the amplifier.

This function allows you to change the volume ratio between the left and right stereo channels. Due to this, the sound stage perceived by the listener can shift to the left or right (depending on which channel sounds louder). Such a setting can be useful, for example, to eliminate errors in audio recording (if the balance is initially set incorrectly), to compensate for design errors in headphones (if one “ear” initially sounds louder than the other), etc. On the other hand, the need for such an adjustment occurs less often, and additional electronic components complicate the design and increase the likelihood of distortion. So balance adjustment nowadays is extremely rare, and mainly among stationary models (see "Type").