2. amps-preamps
  3. 179823-22849

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

Sadly, I am experiencing crackling in the right channel of my system. The crackling happens intermittently and has happened on different sources, including my FM tuner, and from my DAC. It seems like the crackling is not related to the source. 

I have a monster of a system, including a Gryphon Colosseum amplifier, and a pair of Gryphon Cantata speakers. 

My system is described in the link below. How should I go about debugging this problem? Do I dare play the system? Should I buy a cheap amp and swap that in to see if the problem persists? Do I buy a cheap preamp as well? Do I start by swapping the speaker cables to the opposite speaker cables to see if the crackle moves to the other speaker? 

My system has been performing flawlessly for a number of years now. I did have to get cheap part replaced on the amplifier about three or four years ago, and used Soundsmith in Peekskill, NY.

I'm pretty brokenhearted about the possibility of having to get my system repaired. I had total hip replacement surgery two months ago and I can't lift anything. Moving the beast of an amp or the heavy speakers is out of the question. I suppose I could find somebody to help me if it comes to that. 

Sigh. 

Larry
 

 

larrykell
geof3
1,129 posts
 

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.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,119 posts
 

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. 

larrykell OP
122 posts
 

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. 

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