I continually get dust in the pot so have to keep turning it to get rid of the crackle. I'm sure it's getting worse, so my plan was to take it apart and spray compressed air in there in the hope that it'd fix the issue for a longer duration.
However, taking the screws out revealed that this wasn't going to be such an easy exercise. I had a quick search online but it didn't throw up any disasemly guide. Has anyone taken one of these apart? Do i pull the knobs up and off and then just prise the casing off i wonder?
I'd contact Drawmer. I don't know how old your CMC2 is, or what atmospheric conditions it works in, but a crackly volume pot is not something you'd expect in a relatively young monitor controller.
There are potential technical circuit faults that can lead to crackling, or it could be a defective pot... so I'd contact Drawmer first. They are usually very helpful with things like this.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
I see. It's about 18 months old. It's been cracking for most of that time. I thought it was just dust as it's in quite a dusty environment (multi fuel fire) and the crackle goes away if i keep turning it like crazy for a few minutes. There's also a lot of resistance to the knob when it's crackling, which lossens ups after turning it and getting rid of the crackling.
When I had problems with my MC2.1 Drawmer went to great lengths to fix the problem even though the unit was out of warranty. I would indeed contact them, they're way up my list of trustworthy companies.
CC
Last edited by ConcertinaChap on Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Was a bad pot. They sent me a new one free of charge
To disassemble, pull the 3 knobs up and off and undo the nuts on each of the knobs. Take the 4 side screws out (2 each side). The whole thing comes out like a drawer (prise from the front). Undo the 4 screws on the underside (the 2 washers came off the aux and headphone knobs).
To reassemble, pull the source select, mix check, and mute caps off. Took some effort with some of them and one went flying, at which point i moved to working on the floor. Place the cover back on starting from the front. Then go backwards through the disassembly.
Glad you got it sorted. I have a lot of time for the guys and gals at Drawmer -- they design good, sensible gear and sell it at sensible prices, and still find the time to be genuinely helpful to their customers.
And I'm sure others will appreciate the details dis-assembly instructions.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
All props to Drawmer for their service but I am very surprised they supplied 'a member of the public' (I assume?) with a VC?
That PCB looks like double sided, plated thru hole? You need some pretty cute de soldering skills to get a pot (6 pins plus lugs?) off it and not bugger the print and that would then give Drawmer quite a problem in repair or replacement.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Yeah, for the cost of a pot and postage they've pretty much bought a customer for life. That type of service is so rare that it sticks out like a sore thumb.
The pots pulled off easily. They had the same sort of pin connectors that a computer motherboard has for fans, etc.
I bought mine new, it's a year out of warranty, all the pots were scratchy from day one, just didn't get around to it. This is a known issue, I had to pay $40 US to take care of it, and then the repair time too. That means the unit cost me $400, 11% added to the cost. I've worked with Audioscape and Kush on units that gave me grief, both roughly two years after purchase, no questions asked. They paid for shipping, fixed it, sent it back. Cool unit, but...
You are comparing the support by American companies for 'local' American customers with that of a remote British company which, given the costs and complexities of international shipping, is not entirely surprising.... or a fair comparison.
Nevertheless, it is disappointing that you had issues, but I'm glad you got it fixed and recognise the usefulness of the CMC2
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
My main CMC2 volume pot is scratchy too, i just wiggle it around at the beginning of the day and put up with it.
But it does seem like a bad batch or the wrong choice of component.
blinddrew wrote: ↑Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:44 am
My main CMC2 volume pot is scratchy too, i just wiggle it around at the beginning of the day and put up with it.
But it does seem like a bad batch or the wrong choice of component.
yeah, i went through 3 of these units before asking the dealer if I could just exchange it for a different product ... all had scratchy pots and unbalanced L/R tracking ... and the last one had weird intermittent phasey sound like holding the headphone cable a little bit out of the socket / phase cancelling thing between the L/R channels.
the american tech for them told me this:
Unfortunately they have used sealed pots in the CMC2 and no matter what you spray into it, it will not penetrate into the area it needs to go.
I know it’s an inconvenience but if it’s still under warranty I would send it in and have the pot replaced.
Drawmer went to an extreme design in order to insure the left and right channels track very closely. This involves a quad pot instead of the standard stereo pot everyone else uses. I think this might be why these pots get noisy so quickly. The quad pot has 4 sections in which to pick up any dirt, while the stereo pot only has 2 sections. I guess the tradeoff for stereo tracking produces more likelihood of noise. Please understand these are only my feelings and certainly not opinion of Drawmer UK.
