Harman/Kardon Soundsticks subwoofer potentiometer?

[XodiumLabs]

I know this is probably more of an audio equipment thing than a Mac thing, but these are the ones that go with my Cube (with USB audio and everything), so...

Was playing around with the Cube last night and noticed the subwoofer with my soundsticks quit working again. Last time it was because the volume adjustment pot for the subwoofer was flaky, so I took the subwoofer apart, resoldered the legs going to the pot, and injected some contact cleaner and actuated the pot to clean out any gunk. This seemed to work, so I put it all back together, and it worked for a few months.

Now we're back here again, and it's the very same problem. If I apply a bit of pressure to the volume pot, the subwoofer works again. The minute I stop, it cuts out.

At this point I'm thinking I need to just replace the blasted thing because it's 26 years old and probably needs it. Except...I legitimately cannot find a pot that'll seemingly work in this thing. I do know it's a 2K ohm pot, with the markings B2 02 FJ. Photos attached.

If anyone knows of a good drop-in replacement for this, I'm all ears. At this point even willing to forego the fancy gray knob that comes stock on these, I just want it to work.

Not above trying to bodge in a custom replacement either but I'd rather exhaust my options first.

 

[This Does Not Compute]

This one might work, I'd check the datasheet to confirm the dimensions:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bourns-inc/PTV09A-2015S-A202/3820547

 

[XodiumLabs]

This one might work, I'd check the datasheet to confirm the dimensions:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bourns-inc/PTV09A-2015S-A202/3820547

That looks about as close to drop in as I’m going to get, heh. I’ll measure up mine but this looks like the closest fit.

Thankfully Mouser’s selling them per unit, was initially thinking it was game over with that minimum order quantity on digi-key!

 

[XodiumLabs]

So I'm coming back to this to give an update: I fixed the subwoofer, though not without caveats.

Sadly, the part I saw on Mouser was NOT the same exact one TDNC linked. I looked a bit deeper and yeah, whoops. Premature celebration, Mouser had the same issue as digi-key where I'd have to order $2700 worth of pots to get the right one. Feh. So I decided I was going to buy the closest vertical one I could find that matched the spec, and ordered it. That would be this one:

https://www.mouser.com/en/ProductDetail/652-PTV09A4015FB202

I figured I'd either install it normally and just set the pot to like, a half turn before sealing the case up, or just bend the leads sideways and make it work in the horizontal orientation. Ended up having to do the latter because I didn't realize horizontal and vertical pots have different footprints for the anchors relative to the pins. Surprisingly, it ALMOST lined up, though I went too short on the shaft so I have to stick a pair of tweezers in to adjust the subwoofer volume.

Honestly? I kinda like it this way. I take these to shows like VCF, and one of the prime concerns is packing it such that the volume pot (which is normally sticking out) doesn't get smacked around and damaged. With it now recessed into the case, there's no chance that it'll get damaged in transit to a show.

But yeah. Works great now. Just leaves eventually dealing with the speakers on the soundsticks themselves but I'm delaying that as much as I can for it'll be a costly affair.

EDIT: Realized I should probably attach the photo. Also I know I didn't clip in the cable guide and it's just kinda floating around in there. I was honestly expecting this to fail so I didn't put it back in to save myself the effort later, lmao.