WS-420 failing again. What’s everyone using for EQ/zone control these days?
 

Currently dealing with the volume potentiometer going bad on my WS-420BT for the second time (and third unit overall), and ready to start looking for an alternative. What’s everyone using these days? Not a lot of options for stereo shops around here to demo. Am I just having terrible luck or have people made the switch to Exile or simplified things with just dual zone knobs now??

I use the kicker 2-zone controller and then a separate kicker controller for my bass(sub) that comes of the amp.
This is what I use and it works great. I use one zone for tower and one for in-boats and as I said earlier, I have another controller to adjust the sub output.
Kicker 10 ZXMRLC Dual Zone Remote Level Control https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004W0ISO4..._GNBIBbCZWV244

Wow, if you are on your third unit you have had extremely bad luck I would think. I bet if you called Wetsounds they would do everything in their power to make it right. I went to check and the warranty is 2 years I believe. Don't know if that helps you. 3 units failed is 3 units too many.

Please give chad@wetsounds.com an email with your contact info so we can see what’s going on and get it fixed but also find out why your having such bad luck on the 420.

Tim
Wet Sounds

Tim, will do. BTW this thread was in way intended as a slight towards Wet Sounds. My amps and Rev 10s/410 are all bulletproof and worth every penny and I recommend them to everyone that sets foot in my boat. The EQ just always left me feeling like the weak point in the system and can't say I'd recommend it any near as strongly as the rest of the equipment. Genuinely interested if the alternatives would end up with the same result.

I’ve had both and always had good success with my Exile zone controller. Save the worthless WS microphone.
https://www.exileaudio.com/store/ins...er-preamp.html

Only $200
https://www.exileaudio.com/store/hot...er-preamp.html

Micro phone is not the only difference between the out of stock $200 demo exile zond and WS-420BT

Blue tooth being the obvious difference. Further, the WS-420 SQ and BT are DUAL EQ units. This means you have 4 bands of tonal control for the in-boat zone and 4 bands for the tower zone. The mk2 is a single EQ because its a 1-off car audio unit. What ever changes you make with the EQ, effects both tower and in-boat zones. All exile did with the mk2 is split the FADE knob into to two dials and dip the board in conformal coating. One best, difference, is the ground isolation jumper that all 3 of the WS-EQ's have.

I am on my 3rd one as well that is going bad. #4 will be coming up!

Exile ZLD! My experience with exile has been Rad! Outfitted 3 boats with their stuff. In the rare instance something not working right, they go above and beyond to make it right. Huge fan!

Is this normal? The coating on the mic literally fell off.

Sunlight and ozone are cruel to anything rubber or plastic.

I have a brand new WS-220BT never used or opened i'd sell for $250 shipped in the US

How exposed to the elements is the EQ? Are you getting it rained on etc? If so I don't think anybody else's product is really going to be any better than the WS unit. If the boat is kept dry and doesn't see rain (and has some means of shedding water if it does accidentally get rained on) then you could consider (in addition to the exile zld) the audiocontrol three.1, arc audio KEQ5, or the venerable clarion eqs-746 (new model eqs755). None of those other options have dual zone eq, but I've found that separately eq'ing tower and cabin isn't as necessary with modern speakers (i.e. rev10s vs pro80s).

The clarion unit works well and (IMHO) sounds as good as the WS unit (I haven't used the others, but reviews are good). I recently bought the new clarion to try to isolate a nagging alternator whine issue (figured it out, and it wasn't my WS420), and I was really surprised with how good it actually sounds for $60 bucks. The big complaint is that the knobs are really small, and there's not a "big" volume knob. But $60!