Parasound Volume Pot part two

[Ace Deprave]

I just got off the phone with them. Got my RA number and I am sending it back for them to check out.
I'll update this when I get info back from them.

Great, I look forward to seeing what they find. I know I should do the same, but I'm not looking forward to being without it.

 

[Enrico Castagnetti]

Ace contacted me over AVSForum regarding this P5 issue because he knows that I have a P5 since May 2014. My P5 started showing this volume issue back in November 2014. I've contacted Richard at Parasound on December 2014 and he asked me to send my P5 back for repair or to change the volume control. So looks like this is common problem with this unit. BTW I only have my Oppo 105D connected to the P5 via balanced inputs and also I use the HT Bypass with my Marantz SR7008 and my two Rythmik Audio F12SEs subwoofers.

Best Regards,

Enrico

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Ace contacted me over AVSForum regarding this P5 issue because he knows that I have a P5 since May 2014. My P5 started showing this volume issue back in November 2014. I've contacted Richard at Parasound on December 2014 and he asked me to send my P5 back for repair or to change the volume control. So looks like this is common problem with this unit. BTW I only have my Oppo 105D connected to the P5 via balanced inputs and also I use the HT Bypass with my Marantz SR7008 and my two Rythmik Audio F12SEs subwoofers.

Best Regards,

Enrico

So no more issues after the fix?

That would be great news for ematthews since he wouldn't have to buy anything else.

 

[Enrico Castagnetti]

I still have to send it back for repair. It doesn't bother me much but the problem is there. It's very noticeable during slow tunes and only when you change the volume. It happens with the remote and when you change the volume manually. It's also noticeable with my AKG 701 headphones.

 

[ematthews]

Hey. Here is some news. Before I sent it out yesterday I had a friend over who is in to Hifi HT set ups.. We changed out the CD player, cables and even tried a different power amp... Ha an Emotiva back in the house for a day... In any case he said, you know what.... It's coming from one channel only. We changed the speakers over to my RBH and made sure we heard the same thing. Yep.. Right channel. We then changed the right and left Balanced cable and it moved to the left....
So WTF!!!!! One silver P5 with scratchy volume on both sides. One Black P5 with it on the left...
I so want a two channel Pre with bass management, but Emotiva is the only other brand that has this..
I sure hope Parasound fixes mine.

 

[Enrico Castagnetti]

Mine has the problem in both left and right channels but it's louder on the left channel. The Emotiva does not work for me because I need two independent in/out subwoofer channels so I can use my two subwoofers with HT Bypass in conjunction with Audyssey XT32 + SubEQ HT.

Best Regards,

Enrico

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Mine has the problem in both left and right channels but it's louder on the left channel. The Emotiva does not work for me because I need two independent in/out subwoofer channels so I can use my two subwoofers with HT Bypass in conjunction with Audyssey XT32 + SubEQ HT.

Best Regards,

Enrico

I know you don't want me to say this, but I can't help it. If you already have a processor with Audyssey XT32, just set it to Direct mode or to Steteo Audyssey Bypass L/R and you get great 2Ch/2.1Ch music mode.

I really don't see any point of using both a processor + analog preamp for 2Ch music.

I guess my life is just too simple. I see everything too simple.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hey. Here is some news. Before I sent it out yesterday I had a friend over who is in to Hifi HT set ups.. We changed out the CD player, cables and even tried a different power amp... Ha an Emotiva back in the house for a day... In any case he said, you know what.... It's coming from one channel only. We changed the speakers over to my RBH and made sure we heard the same thing. Yep.. Right channel. We then changed the right and left Balanced cable and it moved to the left....
So WTF!!!!! One silver P5 with scratchy volume on both sides. One Black P5 with it on the left...
I so want a two channel Pre with bass management, but Emotiva is the only other brand that has this..
I sure hope Parasound fixes mine.

May be, may be not. I see from pictures that your unit in fact uses a motorized dual Alps pot. Specifically this one.

It seems these are made I think in China now and some in Japan.

Anyhow it seems this device is causing trouble for a number of manufacturers, not just Parasound. It seems they have a high incidence of becoming noisy.

I note on some DIY sites people are modding units which have this device to take TKD units.

I would note I have had trouble with Alps pots once.

I had trouble with my Quad 44, I installed a unit from the Quad importer and it quickly failed. I got in touch with Quad, who said they had, had a lot of these fail. They sent me a control from a batch they knew were good and that control has not failed.

 

[RichB]

If you send your P5 back, maybe you can trade it for the Parasound Integrated. You get a DAC with better specs and you can sell an amp

- Rich

 

[ematthews]

May be, may be not. I see from pictures that your unit in fact uses a motorized dual Alps pot. Specifically this one.

It seems these are made I think in China now and some in Japan.

Anyhow it seems this device is causing trouble for a number of manufacturers, not just Parasound. It seems they have a high incidence of becoming noisy.

I note on some DIY sites people are modding units which have this device to take TKD units.

I would note I have had trouble with Alps pots once.

I had trouble with my Quad 44, I installed a unit from the Quad importer and it quickly failed. I got in touch with Quad, who said they had, had a lot of these fail. They sent me a control from a batch they knew were good and that control has not failed.

Well that's not to reassuring. I just hope they fix it.

 

[ematthews]

If you send your P5 back, maybe you can trade it for the Parasound Integrated. You get a DAC with better specs and you can sell an amp

- Rich

Ha ha. Nope. The Ati isn't going anywhere except to maybe put a third channel in it if I upgrade to a pre pro.

 

[highfigh]

Hey. Here is some news. Before I sent it out yesterday I had a friend over who is in to Hifi HT set ups.. We changed out the CD player, cables and even tried a different power amp... Ha an Emotiva back in the house for a day... In any case he said, you know what.... It's coming from one channel only. We changed the speakers over to my RBH and made sure we heard the same thing. Yep.. Right channel. We then changed the right and left Balanced cable and it moved to the left....
So WTF!!!!! One silver P5 with scratchy volume on both sides. One Black P5 with it on the left...
I so want a two channel Pre with bass management, but Emotiva is the only other brand that has this..
I sure hope Parasound fixes mine.

Did you swap the cables at the amp end only, or did you disconnect the cables completely and move them to the other channel?

 

[ematthews]

Did you swap the cables at the amp end only, or did you disconnect the cables completely and move them to the other channel?

Just at the pre out. This way each is feed To the other channel. I also tried normal RcA cables in place of the balanced.

 

[highfigh]

Just at the pre out. This way each is feed To the other channel. I also tried normal RcA cables in place of the balanced.

And it didn't matter if you used balanced or unbalanced, eh?

What differences do you notice when you compare these two types of cabling?

 

[ematthews]

And it didn't matter if you used balanced or unbalanced, eh?

What differences do you notice when you compare these two types of cabling?

No difference.

 

[ematthews]

Update
Bob at Parasound has been running it for a week now and we talked on the phone. He was able to duplicate the problem... They are doing several things for me. I'll just say that they are going above and beyond for me... This is great customer service. Should have my gear back in a week or so. I will update this when I find out the exact issue on Tuesday.

 

[sharkman]

I do wonder if the Alps brand has been shipping them and others below spec volume pots. Too bad about that, nice to see that Parasound is stepping up to the plate on this.

 

[DMan23]

I own a new P5 from a December purchase and do not have that issue.

 

[highfigh]

Well that's not to reassuring. I just hope they fix it.

But he wrote that he had a problem with an Alps pot "ONCE". They make millions of parts- the chance of having an occasional bad one exists for all manufacturers. After 40 years in the audio business, most of that time working for dealers that did their own service, I don't remember seeing many pots that had problems and if they did, it was with the traces or wipers, not noise from the motor. Many times, bad parts are from the same batch and I think this is true of your pre-amps.

Off topic, but I don't remember seeing any reference to you using specific headphones. What do you use, and what is your opinion of the headphone preamp in the P5?

 

[ematthews]

So Parasound had Alps send them a new Vol Pot. They replaced it with a newer version { DON'T know of any differences} pot and all is well under their testing. Parasound is even resetting my warranty time and threw a nice goodie for my trouble. They actually gave me an option of a brand new unit or taking the repaired one back with the updated Pot and a goodie. So now I will see if any trouble comes back up once I get it back. This is by far one of the best customer service repairs that I have ever been through. Bob even took time to talk with me several times on the phone.. He and Richard went above and beyond...