Random loud popping [resolved]

[Joe Garfield]

I just finished Crack #2. It tested perfectly nominal in resistance and voltage. I started playing music and it sounds great with very quiet background, but there are sudden loud pops. I did a search but post threads about popping also mention hum.

I took the tubes out and they’re working fine in Crack 1.

I’ll check and reflow solder joints but is there any particular area to look at?

[Paul Birkeland]

I would reflow all of the solder joints.  Popping is often one that's loose with intermittent connections.

[Joe Garfield]

Thanks Paul. In that case I opted to try the chopstick test and found the problem.

[hoy83]

How did you do the chopsticks thing? you touched the joints while it was operating and found the problem the re-soldered the joint? I'm kind of having some popping sounds too on my crack.. on occasion there would not be but sometimes there's a lot of popping/static. I found that if I wiggled the power plug on the upper right of the chassis the cracking/popping increased..

[Paul Birkeland]

Plug some cheap headphones into the amp while it's running and poke around with a wooden chopstick to see what you have to poke to get the noise to happen.

[hoy83]

so, I'll turn the chassis upside down, plug a pair of cheap headphones, connect it to an audio source playing music, then prod with a pair of chopsticks? Which joint creates static is where you have to re-solder?

[Paul Birkeland]

Yes, that is the idea.

[hoy83]

oh ok great thanks, that's clearer to me now. But the other guy said in another thread the source should be silent, I'm assuming that I should put the volume of the source to zero then play music? or just not play at all while it's connected?

[Doc B.]

If you ask the same question in two different threads there is a very high likelihood that you will get two different answers. Best bet is to follow this up in just one thread so we can all keep track of the progress.

[hoy83]

alright ok.