What causes ticks and pops in speakers during sound level calibration?

[Palbal]

I had adjusted the sound level with my digital sound level meter, which was calabrated to 75db. The sound level of the white noise is pretty loud and I could hear ticks and pops from my speakers. Could it be that my not-so-great quality digital optical cables are causing the problem?

 

[SilverMK3]

Most likely yes, especially if you've got the cables tightly wound or turning sharp corners.

Interference or "jitter" errors on SPDIF cables come across as ticks and pops rather than the static normally associated with interference on analog cables. This is because the data is being transmitted as a time-sensitive stream of 1's and 0's. If any one of these data-bits does not make it to its destination, that moment in time in the audio stream will sound like a full-volume pop.

Sometimes read-errors on the orginal media come across as "blips" or "pops" as well, though.

 

[Dolby CP-200]

Also check the DVD player check that the disc is clean as this too can curse the above.

 

[Savant]

Pal,

I would be curious as to how you calibrated your SLM to 75 dB. Could you elaborate? Thanks.

 

[MDS]

I don't think the OP meant that he calibrated the meter to 75 dB. It's just that the sentence structure is incorrect and reads that way. I'm sure he meant 'I adjusted the levels to 75 dB using my sound level meter.'

The pops are normal because the tone is abruptly moved from one channel to the next without changing level - it doesn't fade out before it moves to the next channel.