Do you Garage 1217 and Schitt hybrid amp owners need a good balance control?

[sacd lover]

I have two Garage 1217 amps the Sunrise 3 and the Ember 2. I bought the amps because I read they were excellent sounding and they are relatively inexpensive but mostly because 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 6F8G. But the problem I was having is the balance of many tubes triode sections 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 have soon went out of balance.

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 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 and I am now using and enjoying the amps again. If you need compensation you just turn the pot until the R/L channels are in balance. 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

 

[yakbob]

Much appreciated! I’m learning that polyps in my left ear create a very slight hearing imbalance that I can only notice due to the quality of my headphone system. I’ll be trying one of these units out.

 

[yakbob]

I did end up buying the unit SACD Lover mentioned above and agree it’s a fine solution for anyone in need of a balance function for their headphones.

I personally felt I needed a finer grained control since the unit above requires very minute rotation to dial in the proper balance in my system, so I picked up this Nobsound dual slider unit which requires more “throw” for a noticeable change in balance. This allows for really fine tuning. The silder controls are actually pulled from Yamaha recording consoles, but the overall build is much better than it appears in photos on AE. The unit is also heavy enough that sliding the controls doesn’t move the whole unit. Know going in the case is painted mild steel and not aluminum.