Right channel always about 1.5db louder when copying vinyl

[chessman]

ok heres my set up:

Citronic PD-1mk3 direct drive tt
Shure M44G tracking at 1.5g
Citronic AC-1USB phono to usb adapter
Audacity 1.3.13 beta
Windows XP Pro SP3 on a AMD Athlon 6000+ 3Ghz X2 Dual Core, 2GB DDR2-800, 2TB HDD.


Problem is no matter what I do, the right channel is always louder than the left by about 1.5db. I have tried a combination of different things without any luck.

First I tried a different cartridge and aligned it as precise I could using an alignment sheet for my specific tt, same problem. Tried different cartridge angles, same problem. Keeping with the different cartridge installed, I then connected an older analogue amp, connected the tape out from amp direct to on-board line-in on pc. Balance set at 0 on amp and still right channel about 1.5db louder. The older amp produces considerably more noise than my usb pre amp, so its not really an option to use it with balance adjusted. The wires leading to cartridge run directly to phono out on back of turntable, there no pot's or anything like that to adjust, the four wires with earth shielding part way leading to cartridge and are completely separated from the rest of circuitry in turntable. One thing I haven't done is measure the left and right cartridge wires with an ohm meter and compare, maybe this could tell me something?

I have been through just about everything, I even went as far as trying another computer even though I doubted this was the problem as I can record from other sources and see a balanced signal. I have eliminated my usb pre-amp, have eliminated the cartridge. I just don't know what else to try? By the way have tried countless vinyl's, all of them the right channel is louder on my tt.

Even with the tt switched off but still connected to usb-pre amp, I flick the top of cartridge with my finger and see a slight spike on audacity, the right channel records a louder spike than the left.

Any ideas? At the moment im having to use normalize in Audacity to even out the balance, but would prefer to have a balanced input to start with.

[steve]

1.5 dB is not much in the scheme of things and can be easily corrected with the Normalize effect, but as you say it would be nice to fix it at source, or at least find out why it is happening.

To narrow this down a bit, try swapping round the connectors from the turntable to the pre-amp so that the Left turntable output goes to the Right pre-amp input and vice verse.

If the lead plugs into sockets on the turntable, try changing these around as well. (this gives you a total of 4 different wiring configurations).