Hello all,
Had built a fully functioning crack (without speedball) and was mildly annoyed by the fact there was channel imbalance - and very audibly so at low volumes. So I went ahead and replaced the stock pot with a blue Alps pot. (RK27112 100KBX2CC)
After the replacement, I notice an audible hum that gets louder as the volume goes up - when everything (RCA, headphones, etc) is plugged in.
Now, I noticed that when I unplugged the RCA cable from the jacks the humming turned into buzzing - very clearly audible at high volumes. RCA back in, the buzz levels lower. When the RCA cables are not plugged in (just power cable and headphones) - the buzzing responds to say, my hand coming closer to the back of the crack chassis. Or, when I touch the RCA cables with my fingers when they are not plugged into the crack but just nearby it, I can hear crackling/popping. (but only when those RCA cables are plugged into a DAC.. otherwise no)
The blue alps pot has been a pain to solder, as it seems to need a much higher temperature for its pin to finally 'stick'. Is this a bad solder job on the ground pins potentially? Anyone have an idea?
All voltage/resistance checks match up - some voltage readings seem to be a bit higher than before but all within nominal range.
Much appreciated.