Fix Aesthetix Io volume control?

O_holter, about 7 years ago I had a crackling noise in one
channel of my Io as I rotated the volume control. My thought
was that something had gone wrong with the volume control. I
sent it back to Aesthetix to resolve and when Glenn got it
on the bench, it turned out to be a loose socket for the
6sn7 tube. He replaced the tube socket and I haven't had a
problem since.

Yes by all means O_holter, I thought you nailed the problem down to the volume control yourself, but yes if you are not sure, then Rushton has a good point to make.

What you should do is lift the lid to swap tubes left to right to see if anything changes, or very slightly wobble them and listen to see if you get noises or music coming back.

Cheers George

less likely the resistors in volume pot will go bad. connections to those resistors is actually culprit

Honestly do want to try your luck on this level of equipment? I wouldn't if you don't have good component level electronic trouble shooting skills.

This isn't your typical PAS 3 open for experimentation . You could potentially make a mess of it.

I can think of a number of scenarios where faulty connections on the VC may be suspected but would be far from the truth in terms of symptoms.

Find an authorized tech -you're getting arm chair advice from some that don't even know how sophisticated the VC contro really is!

I'm educated in EE and I would rather not touch mine if I had concerns, I don't have the prints and even if I did I'd have to float around between the print and PCB to familiarize myself. The 2nd one is always easier to repair when you learn on the first!

Good Luck

Dear all

Yes Nkj - thinking the same over here. I will drive to the preferred repair shop (suggested by the Aesthetix importer), in some days. Hoping they can fix it, with help from A.

Although we don't want to mess things up, as users, it helps, the more we understand our systems. So this debate, although unresolved at the moment, is worthwhile.

I decided on the repair shop when I came to the end of my "tricks" - swapping tubes, cables, power supplies. Also, because I have two symptoms - scratching in the right volume control, and lack of volume (not loud enough) in that channel.

The strange thing was, for some periods, the loudness came back, and the channel balance was OK. It came and went. However in the last week or so I have not been able to recreate that condition. Instead the right channel volume is just very, very weak (although I can hear it). Likewise, the B+ lamp does not light up, or just very little.

Probably, the reasons for the behavior will be cleared up, with the repair. But I expect it will be an excercise in waiting.

I saw a small phono stage in a record shop the other day, price like $250, and wondered, what about having an "extra" in cases like this. But then again, I think it would sound too poor, I would miss too much, and probably not use it much. I probably would prefer digital. But it was tempting, on another level. The Io is three big heavy boxes. This stage was pocket size.