DISCLAIMER: I am a regular user and not employed by or affiliated with Pandora. I am just another user, trying to help wherever I can. 🙂 The quick response: I don't know if you were able to resolve this, but it sounds like a speaker configuration issue (especially since you're seeing this across multiple applications). The audio driver software that came with your computer should let you determine what types of speakers are hooked up, how they're wired, and how they're configured. It may be set to something like "5.1 Surround". Try other settings, especially "Stereo" if yours has that option. Also look for a setting that says something like "Swap Center / Subwoofer Output" and see if that gives you better results. Unfortunately, there are hundreds (thousands?) of audio drivers and speaker manufacturers out there, so I won't be able to help with specific settings. But hopefully this gives you something new to look into. The detailed response: (I wrote this first but then realized you might not want to read a wall of text. So I created the quick response above.) I don't know if you were able to resolve this, but it sounds like a speaker configuration issue at the sound card / motherboard level. The audio driver software that came with your computer should let you determine what types of speakers are hooked up, how they're wired, and how they're configured. For instance, my audio driver software lets me set my speaker configuration to any of Stereo, Quadraphonic, 5.1 Surround, and 7.1 Surround. Within each of those settings I can choose whether or not I have a center speaker, subwoofer, full range speakers, etc. Because each motherboard / laptop manufacturer likes to do things a little differently, and because each speaker manufacturer also likes to do things a little differently, results are rarely consistent. Let's say you're set up to use 5.1 surround in your audio driver. Now let's say that you're running an app that doesn't natively produce a 5.1 signal. Instead, the app only provides stereo output. (Incidentally, most apps - including Pandora - are like that. DVD/Blu-ray software will provide 5.1 and 7.1 signals, but most music apps don't.) That two-channel (stereo) signal gets sent to your audio driver and it has to figure out what to do with it. It knows it's not 5.1, so it might choose to send it to the L/R channels. Or it might choose to send it to the center channel (where "dialog" is typically encoded in movies). It will depend a bit on how the audio driver is written and how your settings are configured. Why am I telling you all this? You mentioned that you were getting sound through your subwoofer. On most motherboards, the subwoofer and the center channel share the same three-wire connector (center, subwoofer, ground). Speaker manufacturers are inconsistent in the center / subwoofer wiring, so many audio drivers will include an option to "swap center / subwoofer output" (mine has this). Checking this option may give you sound through your center channel instead of your subwoofer. That said, I believe the better option would be to set the overall configuration to "Stereo" instead of "5.1 Surround". If you're able to get good results by setting it to "Stereo", then you may be able to play around with other settings to produce a synthetic surround sound. For instance, my Logitech speakers include a "matrix" button that takes a stereo signal and sends the low end to the subwoofer, and a slightly delayed version of the L/R signal to the rear speakers to give the sound a bit more presence. The button's name is dumb, but the effect is pleasing. Start with simple stereo, then layer on additional effects. Probably more information than you were looking for, but hopefully it gives you something to look into for ALL your apps. Good luck!
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