MY TURN...........I have popping sound!

[Britney meyers]

Hello all

I'm experiencing this ear piercing popping sound coming out of my speakers only when I play back movies (DVD) This is weird cause it doesn't always happen and I've tried to reproduce it on my own but I can't it seems to do it when ever it wants.

I'm using a Harmon Kardon AVR85 which I'm pleased with minus the popping sound, connected to a Sony DVPS7000 using Monster Cable Dig Coax.

Here's what I have figured out thus far:

It only happens in DD/coax mode and never happens when I switch to RCAs in Prologic mode.

It happens a lot when I turn on my receiver and immediately pop in a movie with out letting the receiver warm up, yeah it sounds silly but if I turn on my receiver and let it warm up I won't get that popping sound.

Also there is one movie in particular that it happens a lot (A few good men) for some reason it happens a lot with this movie, now it does happen with other movies also and mostly in parts where no sound is present (silent or quite scenes).

The sound is as loud as the volume is turned up. I'm afraid this is going to ruin my speakers.

At first I thought it was my DVD player so I took it back and got a replacement, that didn't fix the problem. I took in my receiver in for a check up but they found nothing wrong with it (waste of money)

I've been stumped for too many months now.

I would be so thrilled if anyone can share some ideas with me.

Thank you
Britney

 

[JohnA]

It might be...

"Hard Clipping" Check your settings on the Receiver for the bass output and if it has a "loudness" setting. You might be overdriving the speakers with the bass output. Or it might be a problem on the board that decodes the digital signal.

Sorry that I can't be of more help, and Good Luck!!

 

[rschleicher]

One other thing that might help to narrow down the problem would be to try hooking up the multi-channel analog outputs of your DVD player to the analog multi-channel inputs of the receiver. In this case you will be using the Dolby Digital decoders of the DVD player, and bypassing the decoder chips of the receiver. If the problem goes away in this mode, then it would tend to point to a problem with your receiver's decoding chips. If it doesn't go away, then it is confusing, since replacing the DVD player didn't change the problem, and the popping channel doesn't pop in 2-ch. mode.

 

[rschleicher]

One other experiment would be to replace the digital coax connection with an optical connection. The signal path is mostly the same in both cases, but obviously you are going through different physical interface ports on both the DVD player and receiver. And all you are out for the experiment is $15 or so for the Toslink cable.

 

[Britney meyers]

Thanks for the replies

I searched for a loudness setting and I don't have anything like that on my receiver.

What about the speaker size settings maybe I'm not setting it right. I was told when using a separate sub to set everything to small. Did I get the right advice.

As far as using an optical cable verses a coax; I get better sound using the coax but if it makes the popping sound go away then I'll switch. I'll give it a shot.

Anywho,
If anyone else has any advice please feel to post here or PM me.

Thanks
Brit

 

[crashguy]

If it's a sharp "scratchy" noise, it could be "digital noise" from the digital to analog converter in your receiver. Could indicate a problem with your H/K. If you could arrange it, try swapping out the receiver for another and see if the noise goes away. At least you could eliminate the DVD player and the speakers as the culprits.

That's a tough one...

 

[toquemon]

I had the same problem with an Onkyo receiver but only when DTS was engaged; it was one of the first receivers that could decode DTS and there was an error on the Digital chipset of the receiver. It produced a loud "sctatchy" noise similar to the one you're describing.

It was fixed changing the chipset under warranty.