Sony HDV-UX1 - Distorted Audio

Returned from Silverstone at the weekend to find all my footage of the cars, including close up shots from within the pit lane is awful because the gain from the mic seems set way too high for the audio system on the camera to be able to handle such dynamic range. Sound is about 50% distortion.
I know F1 cars are noisy, but I also got a similar proble at the post race party where a couple of bands were playing. I was at around 100 feet from the PA.

Sony claim to know nothing of this problem.

This, combined with the fact that there is currently no way of playing back the 5.1 audio streams with any of the bundled software means I am really fed up with this camera.

Any one else had this problem or do I have a faulty unit? Its not in the serial number range for a software patch Sony distribute on thoier web site - anyone know what the patch fixes - is it this issue?

I have previously owned about 8 camcorders which would have put up with this type of use and produced good results, so why is the UX1, which is by far the most advanced, so incapable of recording audio?

So no one with an UX1, SR1 or any of thier successors is getting this kind of problem???