I’m very sorry to tell you but your unit is broken. Just curious, Where did you buy it?. Thanks!
I am secondhand owner but I have the original receipt, it has been bought new in January 2025 from an Italian reseller called NewGroove (they are serious people, I bought from them several times).
Until a few days ago the encoder was skipping a few turn but it was manageable, like other people reported in the thread. Now it is barely usable.
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Yes, same thing happened to me two times. According Torso, you need a replacement unit. Your unit can’t be repaired.
This is ridiculous to imagine that they won’t replace the unit, only to refund you. It’s almost like directly admitting that there’s a problem with the device which they intend to keep selling to other people.
Something like “this water makes you thirsty but only people who haven’t figured it out can still purchase it”.
Perhaps there was an issue with the batch of S4 that Thomann received and is currently selling. It seems like despite other people having some issues with the main encoder, most of them are at times unpredictable but not broken.
For you to receive 2 broken ones and then after going through the normal warranty procedure they won’t replace it with another unit seems very suspicious.
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I’m going to update my situation.
It seemed that it was a refund to me (or I understand it by the status on my profile about this problem). But after talk with Thomann team, a replacement was send it to me this morning.
I understand that a replacement is a new unit. I don’t mind if is my broken unit repaired. But I understand that it’s a new unit.
It’s the second time after my last post that I saw somebody with my problem. Maybe there are more people, but this needs to be addressed.
Thanks and sorry for the misunderstand, I thought it was a refund.
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Fwiw I did ask around before ordering after seeing your reports here and on the discord, but I didn’t get anyone saying they have issues with the encoders - consensus was that they’re overall pretty unremarkable. So I concluded rightly or wrongly that this is not an across the board issue.
And so far that’s been borne out for me, no issues with the master encoder just standard indented encoder behaviour, and actually pleasantly surprised by the parameter encoders after seeing one guy in the discord saying saying they’re low quality - I think I actually prefer them to my old digitakt, or maybe I just prefer the hard plastic to the rubbery coating for safe-cracking precision adjustments. But also only had mine a week and I could have a whole different take in a month or two, so like I say this is just fwiw.
I just left mine idling with midi clock sync active and it didn’t crash, guess that one might be squashed in 2.0.1. One thing I would like is some kind of collect all and save option for files loaded off an external drive in disc mode so you can still open projects when hooked up to a computer/iPad over usb. Can always record to a buffer or record and save to the internal storage, but not ideal …
all of this s4 lack of quality encoder issues in the long run are not gonna fade away.
torso should recalled and rebuild good quality set of encoders like the T-1
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So I had very bad luck it seems. Two units replaced with the same problem. I answered if I remember correctly two people about their faulty encoders here in this thread. Torso sent to me a message (I was in contact with the first unit) and said to me that the unit must be replaced.
I hope all the best for Torso, but I’m afraid to have the same problem out of warranty so I asked in discord to make BPM selection and project name with other encoders.
And I hope all your units will be ok in the future.
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Is it not the same indented encoder as on the T1? It feels pretty much the same other than the different caps, would be surprised if a small manufacturer was to use a different part for this. Actually more than anything else what gave me the confidence to order was experience of already having a T1 and personally I’d put the build quality about on a par between the two at least just based on feel, I think they hold up against anything else I have.
Anyway, hopefully it is a just a thing of a bad batch of parts or bad luck and the next one doesn’t give issues.
Guys I am so frustrated after this problem with the encoder.
The device is really 99% there, the ideas are beautiful, I can see it becoming a very powerful instrument but…
I just worked like 6 hours on a project that now doesn’t even record on one track because is corrupted or something (record worked yesterday on the same project on the same track and works on every other track in the project, I tried restarting and everything).
Sometimes I love it and sometimes I just want to throw this thing out of the window.
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Would you know which batch your broken units are? The serial at the back seems to indicate “March 2025”, and it came pre-installed with v1.0 software, and not the lastest v2.0 which was already out for a month before I bought mine. I am getting anxious that sooner or later, if this batch are the faulty ones, my encoder will give up too. It’s a shame all these units are still out there instead of being recalled from the reseller. It is like rolling a dice to see if we are unlucky or not.
I think my first unit was from January 2025. I have a photo of the serial number and it begins with 25 - 01. Both units came with 1.2.2 if I remember correctly, that was the official before 2.0 (please correct me if I’m wrong).
Send a message to Torso, their customer service was good. But based on my experience, they will give you a new unit.
Mine begins with 24, so it was the batch before yours. Bought in January 2025 as well.
What a mess for this high price. Hope the bring out a new revision.
I think that these reports of a hardware issue seriously harms this unit sales and company more then Torso can acknowledge. Why they are not stepping in say, you have an issue, send it over, we do know about it bla bla bla. I am on fence for 3 months, have one in the basket at Thomann but I am slowly loosing interest every time I see these reports. Damn you Torso, men up, this can’t be rocket science. Put there a pocket operator encoder with new cap ) Done 
Can anyone post a video how wobbly these encoders are?
I am showing you the video I am sending to the seller to get a replacement. They told me that they will replace it for sure.
As you can see it’s not a problem of “wobblying” as much as the encoder not being resposive. You can see from my video that a single click doesn’t even move the cursor. A long rotation might do it but the result is totally impredictable. Try naming a project in this state, it is a nightmare.
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That was my problem in the two units.
If you have a little bit of time you can search “encoder” word in this post. There are some users with random behaviour encoders. It’s true that I have a lot of posts about my issue but there are more people.
As I said, I wish the best for torso and they’ve made an awesome device but 2 times the same problem is too much for me. They need to look better into this problem
Thanks for the video. Given how long this product is on sale, this is unacceptable and they should be well aware what is going on and recall batch. Or let least handle this by official statement.
However, maybe it’s as difficult to pin point specific hardware batch as we know from display ghosting issues from Elektron. These still do pop up unexpectedly across the full lineup of Elektron hardware within 3 years of selling window.
Yeah agreed, with all these issues it seems to weird to power forward.
I would like to try one out but all these stories are very off putting, even if there are units with no issues.
It’s a shame as it seems like such a cool device and for the people that it’s been a let down for.
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They must be aware, I just checked the Torso Discord and there is literally a dozen people in a few different threads complaining about this problem. Most are still in the early stages (just skipping a few clicks) but as we discovered it will get worse for them too.
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