Off-center listeners lose the phantom center image which collapses toward the nearer loudspeaker

Evidence

Moving away from the sweet spot, the phantom center image—the featured artist—moves with you, quickly jumping to the nearer loudspeaker. Alleviating this problem has been a longstanding challenge. For a single listener, the balance control can compensate somewhat for an off-center listening position. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 427