Bottlehead Forum
Bottlehead Kits => Crack => Topic started by: Tonydatigerr on February 17, 2014, 08:12:30 AM
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There is a crackling noise in the right channel that does not change with volume and seems to randomly come and go. I have replaced both the tubes and reheated all the joints (also had my father who is an electrical engineer double check). Is there anything that I might have missed that can cause this?
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Generally, this is indeed a funky solder joint.
What I would do is to plug a cheap pair of headphones into the Crack, plug the power cord into the Crack (but not the wall), then get it situated in the base so that the guts are facing up.
Plug the power cord in to get it running, then put your cheap headphone on.
With a wood chopstick (NOT A PENCIL!!!), gently poke around each tube socket pin, and each component. There will come a time when you poke something with the chopstick, and you get some crackling out of your headphones. This will direct you as to where you need to be soldering.
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So I did that last night, and ended up not doing any soldering because I wasn't able to locate a source. However, I did push in the socket pins. I turned it on - no change. Left it that way for a few hours and turned it off. I came back about half an hour later and turned it on, to find it was silent for the rest of the night. Came back again this morning and the noise is back.
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Have you tried cleaning the sockets and tube pins by removing them and inserting them 10 times? It can't hurt and often cures a little oxidation that can cause noise.