Loud Crackle When Plugging In

[Tonydatigerr]

Recently, I've noticed that sometimes when I plug in my headphones, there's a loud sort of crackling noise in the left channel. I make sure that the volume pot is at 0 before I plug it in as well. Also, the left channel randomly went out and I found out that tapping on the volume pot brings sound back or recreates the noise. Does this indicate that the volume pot is bad?


I'm fairly sure that this has caused damage to my cans as the right side is noticeably louder and I want to prevent any further damage.

Edit: To clarify, the noise is like a popping / crackle noise.

[Paul Birkeland]

If you tap on the volume pot and this causes noises, you have a cold solder joint either on the volume pot or close by.

-PB

[kscwuzhere]

Check the ground path and make sure you have no bad connections. There's a crack ground thread that's stickied, I'd check that out.