Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 2.0 Pot Fix

One of my favorite audio companies for years now has been Klipsch. They've offered unparalleled THX certified sound for the computer audio enthusiast and as a result I've happily purchased multiple sets of speakers from them. Unfortunately, I've come to find that the volume and bass potentiometers (a.k.a. pots or rheostats) on the ProMedia Ultra 2.0 series are faulty. I put up with the irritations that go along with the knob adjustment crackling and popping sounds for a while, but finally had to do something about the issue when the sound started to cut out altogether.

I concluded there to be a couple options in this case since I'm out of warranty by at least a couple years and Klipsch no longer produces these speakers. I could have certainly attempted to switch out the pots with new, perhaps higher quality ones but this option didn't thrill me all that much because it's invasive, time consuming, and a last ditch effort in the event there are no other options. Fortunately, I was able to find evidence that people were successfully fixing the pots by opening up the speaker enclosure, spraying compressed air onto the pot, and subsequently lubricating the knob with a light oil of some variety. This solution seemed a lot better to me so that's what I went ahead and did. Sure enough, the speakers are already performing more reliably than they had been before this fix. However, I must report that as I write this they have already cut out one time and I had to turn the speakers off and on again in order to get the faulty pot to work. We'll see how things go moving forward. Who knows? I may soon find myself writing an article about replacing the potentiometer with a new one...

Mike