Crackling in right channel, what do I do? Help, please.

Do you hear this phenomenon simply listening, at any volume, or is it related to volume change, or power on/off etc? It could be just about anything. Could be as simple as ground noise, or as bad as an amp on its way out. More details would be helpful.

Is it a crackle or a rattle? If it’s a rattle I would check if everything’s tightly secured - speaker/stand coupling, whatever else can be potentially loose. 

If it’s a crackle, it could be a damaged driver (possibly tweeter). Swap speaker cables to have your amp’s left channels drive your rights speaker and right channel drive the left. If the crackle travels together with the cable swap it’s the amp. If still crackling in the right speaker your speaker needs to be looked at. 

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
 

It’s a crackle not rattle and it appears to be at any volume level. When I heard it, I switched sources and it kept happening. I then took the volume level to 0 and there was still some noise on the right channel. When I turned off the amplifier, you could hear a noise in the right channel.

I suppose it could also be the preamp. How do I figure out if it is the preamp?

First, I will swap both ends of end cable from left to right to see if the sound moves to the other speaker. 
 

I’ll tighten all connections. I’m running a big AudioQuest power conditioner. Could it be that? Seems unlikely. It’s either the speaker, amp, or preamp, I think. 

I guess I’ll swap the amp end cables first and then swap both ends with of the cables to see if the cable could somehow be bad. 

Hi @larrykell 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, first world or otherwise, and I hope your hip is mending according to plan.

First thing to do would be to isolate to a particular channel so swap your speaker cables from left to right and right to left. Im almost certain the noise will move to the left speaker but thats step one. In the event the noise stays in the right channel it s your right speaker.

Next up, replace the speaker cables to the way they were before. Turn everything on and ensure the noise is still present. Then turn off one component at a time to see if the noise ceases with each subsequent power off. Repeat until only your amp is on and if the noise persists, your last checkpoint would be to disconnect everything from the amp except power and speaker cables. If the noise is still there, then the right channel in your amp requires attention.

If the noise is NO LONGER there, then you will have to chase it back up through your chain. I would switch left interconnects with right interconnects for each piece of gear and methodically take notes as to what you. Have done and what you will do. This will help you stay on track in the event the phone rings, the doorbell sounds of if Judge Judy comes on the TV. In the event the noise moves from right to left channel then you might have a bad interconnect or more likely, that the interconnects needed to be properly seated/re-seated.

You will get it sorted, just be patient, it will work out. Getting a high quality piece of gear serviced isn’t the end of the world…it might be something as simple as seating your cables properly or removing tension from the routing of certain stiff interconnects. It might even be a fuse in your amp slowly faining or improperly seated due to transit/moving it around.

Good luck.