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Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA

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Posted on April 6, 2014 at 11:32:37
Michael Norona
Audiophile

Posts: 93
Location: Florida
Joined: August 12, 2009
 I bought an Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA from a guy on ebay who claims it "works perfectly, completely re-capped, switches cleaned, etc...." the volume pots will not come close to attenuating to zero

Long story short; very amateurish job. The volume control is 2- 10K mono decks; 2 - balance decks, and the on/off switch. Its a PC mounted control. It appears that the repair shop bathed the pots in Deoxit to the point that the phenolic wafers that are the backs of each control are saturated. Could Deoxit cause a problem like the one I have described? I am wondering if they used a small brush or something that could have moved the wipers. Seems unlikely they could do it to both controls and get them identical.

Any one familiar with the pre-amp, or what might cause this problem? Thanks!

 

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RE: Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA, posted on April 6, 2014 at 14:08:16
chocolate_lover9999@yahoo.com
Audiophile

Posts: 1628
Location: South Central Coast, California
Joined: October 12, 2003
 The "less is more" adage generally applies to Deoxit but it is rare that it does not help as opposed to harm - some techs will use a lot to flush out a pot, etc. but sometimes that can also flush out factory lubrication that provides mechanical resistance and it becomes too loose not making good contact. My guess is it's something else that's causing the problem and not having used too much Deoxit.
see:
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/ctype.KB/it.I/id.703/KB.215/.f?category=3
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/ctype.KB/it.I/id.316/KB.215/.f

 

RE: Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA, posted on April 6, 2014 at 18:00:40
Michael Norona
Audiophile

Posts: 93
Location: Florida
Joined: August 12, 2009
 Thanks for your thoughts. Another problem was there is/was a lot of play in the control's shaft. There is the inner shaft controlling volume, and the outer the balance. The control is a PC mount, and sits in the middle of the motherboard, as a result the shaft is a little under 2" long . There is an L-bracket with a nylon bushing that the shaft passes through at about the half way point. There was a lot of play, to the point were you could double the right channel volume by lightly pulling up on the knob. I slipped a small piece of PVC heat shrink over the shaft, and managed to slide it into the bushing, an it worked really well and took out all the play. It was then I discovered the problem with the pots. The unit appeared to be working when I got it, but I notice the balance control was all the way to the left, but you had both channels sounding even. I centered the balance knob and all the other problems showed up.

This is actually the 2nd one of these I have. Someone hacked the phono section in the first one I bought about 6 years ago. I looked everywhere for a schematic, but there were none to be had. When I saw this one I bought it to use fix the the other unit. As it happens they are 59 units a part assuming their serial numbers work in a standard progression. Somewhere in that 59 the changed the layout of the PC boards. The circuits seems identical, with better parts in the newer pre-amp. The answer would be a new switch, which the odds of finding one would be slim to less than none, and expensive to boot. Thanks

 

RE: Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA, posted on April 7, 2014 at 04:24:49
middleground
 Does this mean that sellers on ebay misrepresent the condition of what they are offering?

 

RE: Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA, posted on April 7, 2014 at 05:20:13
Michael Norona
Audiophile

Posts: 93
Location: Florida
Joined: August 12, 2009
 In the case of both of these pre-amps, yes the sellers did misrepresent the units they were selling.

In case of the one I am currently discussing, he offered a refund, but I am keeping it to use as a guide to rebuild the original I bought 6 years ago on ebay. The guy was very evasive, and would not answer any question directly. He claimed to have paid the shop to service the unit, and then ship it to the auction winner, and never listened to the pre-amp, before, or after the service. I asked if he did this on a regular basis, no answer. He replied that he was not an expert on the pre-amp. But that didn't stop him from making the statement in the auction description, that this pre-amp has the best phono section in any pre-amp under $1000. Bold statement for a non-expert novice.

On that original unit, I trusted the guy to be honest, and by the time I checked the pre-amp, it was not returnable

 

RE: Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA, posted on April 7, 2014 at 06:42:42
FenderLover
 Hi Michael, how are you doing?

When I see any equipment with a lot of Deoxit, it usually means that there is something wrong with the unit. Whomever "fixed" the unit doesn't have a clue what the problem is. And sprays a ton of cleaner onto the problem & prays to the Great Contact Cleaner God for a miracle fix.

The "fix" rarely happens. One spray of Deoxit or one gallon.

Good luck with that!


8^)

 

Ditto, posted on April 7, 2014 at 08:14:48
airtime
Audiophile

Posts: 11287
Location: Arizona
Joined: February 4, 2003
 the pots bad!

charles

 

Amen to that!, posted on April 7, 2014 at 10:09:00
Michael Norona
Audiophile

Posts: 93
Location: Florida
Joined: August 12, 2009
 It's like taking 6 aspirin instead of 2 because it should work 3 times better, and 3 times faster.

You can see the wipers, but can't get to them, because a board sits above the control. In the cleaning attempt they may have move the wipers, who knows. At some point I will remove the board and see what I can do. It certainly didn't occur to them that the play in the shaft was a major cause of the problems. It was very amateurish work for certain.

 

RE: Volume pot problems with ebay Electrocompaniet Preampliwire IIA, posted on April 13, 2014 at 09:48:54
wheezer
Audiophile

Posts: 4309
Joined: January 24, 2001
 I echo FL's findings.

Is replacement of the saturated Vpots an option?

 

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