Thanks for this. It was like this when received, damaged during shipping. Damaged gears is a definite possibility. After straightening the shaft, rotation was much better. It rotates to the 4o’clock position with the remote smoothly. I doubt I’ll ever listen to it with the volume that loud! The bigger issue is the imbalance between the channels. I think the resistance board may be the issue.
Edit: It's with my tech, fingers crossed.
That imbalance thing has shown up on many different receivers and pre amps that I've tried over the last 2 years! I'm not saying 1 or 2 but more like every single one I tried! I figured it was my speakers, they've been in testing phase for the last 2 years and have changed often. I swapped wires and it just was louder on the other one.
Then I figured it's a slight imbalance that's more noticable now that my speakers have become far more sensitive as it get closer to getting things figured out, but I noticed it when I connected different bookshelfs too. I found myself turning balance about half way to one side to even it out.
I tried different sources since I have 20 or so CD players from every year they were made up to around 2005 when they started purposely making them with impurities to make sure they would continue making sales (I guess that's what they were thinking).
It started way back for me with a Denon surround receiver that had a quiet right front channel that required it to be maxed on that one output to even out. I didn't notice it with either of 2 Integra surrounds or a huge Pioneer built in 2003 even though it was the oldest of the AVRs it was easily the best sounding.
I got out of the multi-multi speaker set ups once I saw the number of speakers ho from too many to WTF? I also hated running a sub woofer, it never sounded right and unpluged it 5 years before I got rid of it.
That's when the 2 channel stuff was used and I didn't notice it with an old HK receiver, but it just smoked after turning it on and it would need to be restarted some times, I just left it on to see if it would start and like every HK receiver it smoked!
Then I got an old 1980s Rotel receiver 45wx2 it sounded great but the balance had to be set favoring 1 side. Tried an old Hitachi 80wx2 and it was the same way! Next was an old Kenwood 35wx2 "amp", same thing, NAD 1700 pre with built in tuner and a couple of old Peavey 400 amps, same thing! Bought a brand new cheapie Pyle pre amp just to see if I was going crazy and it was way off, so bad I replaced the pot and found no difference, by that time I had gone through a bunch of amps and they all worked fine, I got a pyramid pre as part of a package deal and it too was slightly off. Next was a Hafler IRIS pre from an all Hafler system I got for way cheap, yup it was off as well, but the Hafler has a weird balance control that boosts one speaker as it slightly attenuates the other. Tried all inputs and still no change, added a DBX dual 31 band to take care of the imbalance but it proved to be a POS, like new but sliders do cheap they had no center detent on half of them and needed shims to keep contact on 3 sliders.
Took a look inside and saw 90% plastic, tried various other EQs that I didn't like sold the IRIS sold the NAD and the Rotel, I gave up on preamps just because of this problem maybe 4 months ago and found another dual 31 band EQ that appears to be a much better higher quality piece. Lots of point to point heavy guage wiring with all through hole components and metal encased sliders. Has full volume control from zero to +12db so it's now my pre and the balance issue is no longer an issue.
I have noticed that from track to track I need to bump up 1 side to keep perfectly centered sound.
Most are ok but some are quite noticable, it will lose that magical bubble that encapsulates you inside the song. I attribute that to ultra high sensitivity speakers. The shift is very slight but when the magic disappears I'm turning nobs.
I also have gains on each piece from EQ to crossover to both amps so I can see where the lights are dim and know that the change is within the source since my EQ is showing 1 light brighter and my amps show it on both high and low brighter on the same side.
The EQ I'm using now is an OSP EQX231A, no noise, very few EQs have volume control that will cut the output completely and are fully analog with no detents, oh yeah, and actually work like you'd expect. This one also has a sub control that has a continuously variable setting from 30 to 120Hz which I don't use but many might find it to be exactly what they've be looking for. It's like a poor man's crossover tossed in for free! Also has switchable low cut set at 30Hz I think. 6 LEDs per side helps set balance with 18db boost possible. Blows away every other pre amp and EQ I've ever tried and I have 5 other EQs on hand and sold a few recently. I also did my time with DSP and realized that's a complete waste of time and money, I learned the hard way and was glad I found a buyer for the highest priced one, sent 3 back and still have an Aura Bi-amp Flex I'm selling for cheap. It can do everything, but like all others, it's useless to me.
