Advice on popping noise from Audio Aero Prestige


I recently upgraded this player to 'signature edition' (cryo tubes, exotic caps, better damping). Sounds brilliant and is an improvement over standard unit. Upgrade took place at factory in France.

Popping noises (esp on left channel) now occurs whenever volume is changed, pressing stop, or choosing next/previous track. Also, player gets confused on repeat play (at end of cd/sacd it either stops or goes into scan mode). When system is idle, a buzzing sound comes through left channel. However, when playing music none of these noises occur.

Prior to upgrade, no such problems happened. My dealer suggests that I should burn-in the player for longer in the hope that popping and buzzing significantly reduces. I'm not entirely convinced this will work and seek other suggestions/solutions. Also, is it safe to continue using this player?

Thanks in advance.
cics
Yes, my AA connects directly to the 33Hs and in the dealer setup, the AA connects to a Viola preamp which drives a valve amp.
Finally getting somewhere. After lots of trouble shooting (change power cords, swap line filters, test ics, check voltage, lift grounds, etc.) the pops simply continued. This was not a grounding issue.

I took the player back to the dealer for another test and test his own player (also prestige se) in my system:
- In dealers system using my player, pops were more noticeable than before but still very soft and acceptable.
- With dealer's player in my system, I have no pops at all!

It seems there is a difference between the 2 players with the dealer's unit having older software. There also may be differences between the phillips transports.

We're going to run the players for a while in both systems to be sure. It may just be that in dealer's system, preamp is doing some additional buffering/muting when music signal is interrupted (i.e. stop, next, prev). Nonetheless fault seems to be with the player.
Thank you for keeping us up to date. I was thinking along the lines of a small DC spike when making input/volume changes. This would be noticeable with amps that do not block incoming DC.
With the buzzing, the culprit could be one (or both) of the new cryo treated tubes. Can your dealer re-solder in new tubes to try that out?
Very interesting-i'll follow-up on whether the 33h deals with dc spikes. I think its worth noting the player comes with a stern warning on switching off power amp or turning vol down on preamp whenever player is powered on or off. When you press stop it also mutes output for a few secs. It does this to prevent a spike through the system. I've heard this spike on 2 occasions (power on & off) before the upgrade (at low volume) and what is interesting is the pops i'm hearing now are similar to those spikes.

On changing tubes, AA insists that it's done by the factory otherwise they won't warranty it. The buzzing problem is not as consistent as the pops though.