Need a good balance control?

I have two Garage 1217 amps the Sunrise 3 and the Ember 2. I discovered these amps reading here at SBAF. I bought the amps because I read they were excellent sounding and they are relatively inexpensive and I have a huge stock of NOS tubes that work in these amps.

My favorite tubes in the amps are the 7N7 tall bottle and the 5670/2C51. But the problem I was having is the balance of the triodes is off or soon goes out of balance so the the right or left side is noticeably to loud. I have tried a bunch of these tubes and even if they work initially the tubes soon go out of balance. I actually emailed Jeremy and asked if they ever thought of adding a way to balance the tube. But I never got a response.

Anyway, so I started looking around and found this ..... a one input , one output balance control.

I just got the control Wednesday and it works exceptionally well. I have a 2 in/ 4 out switch box (Thanks RD) and I run the dac to the the balance control and the balance control to the switch box and then choose the specific amp I will be using. I do use exactly the same IC's for each connection.

I am happy to report the unit is completely transparent to my hearing. I do not hear anything added or removed. Dynamics, timbre, clarity etc... all remain the same. There is a good range on the pot which is a better quality Alps 27. So, the unit works as advertised and solves my issue so I am now using and enjoying the amps again. If you do not heed any compensation the unit has a defined 12:00 center position to return to. The unit is very sturdily built. The unit only costs about $35 and then with shipping and taxes ends up being around $50.

If you use any Garage 1217 headphone amps or the Schitt hybrid amps that have this issue .... or even a speaker system that has balance issues this unit is highly recommended.

See link at the bottom of the page









https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803058979488.html?pdp_npi=2@dis!USD!US $35.86!$35.86!!!!!@2101d1b816708561758472795e71b6!12000024833081165!btf&_t=pvid:967338b3-4e87-485b-8a6f-61d84c783660&afTraceInfo=1005003245294240__pc__pcBridgePPC__xxxxxx__1670856176&spm=a2g0o.ppclist.product.mainProduct&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa&_randl_shipto=US

 

you could always try using two of them for a pseudo dual mono setup

 

That's ingenious. Didn't know such a thing existed...