Advice on popping noise from Audio Aero Prestige

Problem has been resolved! AA sent a replacement mother board which elliminated the issues.

Looks like a transportation problem where some damage occurred but definitely not visible to the naked eye. Damaged board has gone back for analysis.

After a few days, its hit the sweetspot! I'm wondering whether the board has been burnt-in at the factory... but i'm not complaining.

David - just curious, what is your experience on the player?

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.

Thank you for your prompt responses. The player is getting worse. I'll be sending it back for repairs - its still under warranty.

Another 3 weeks of waiting in frustration...

Johnny - Fortunately, I haven't paid for the upgrade yet but yes this should never happen in high-end audio. Its just sloppy qa or workmanship on the part of the factory. It feels like a backyard/garage operation!

Transport damage is a possibility however on receiving the unit, I could not see any damage to the box. No stress marks, kinks, etc. that would suggest physical abuse. But transportation could definitely be a factor and I may be incorrectly faulting Audio Aero.

Rwwear - quote from Audio Aero on cryo tubes: "2 cryo'd 6021W high precision matched Philips tubes (tube is frozen to stabilize the molecular structure from the tube and to eliminate moisture)".

David - Will definitely inform on how this plays out. This player takes a long 2-3 months of burn-in and unfortunately my dealer can only loan me a new one. The difference is not subtle as you will find out. When its in the 'zone', its just brilliant.

Rwwear - Your logic cannot be faultered. AA provides this as part of the 'signature edition' kit. (You also get a 'signature edition' decal which is attached to the transport tray face). My understanding of this treatment is that its temporary and benefits wear off over time.

Took the player to my dealer and tested it in his system. No pops or buzzing whatsoever!

The thinking now is that it could be a grouding issue - I am puzzled as nothing has changed in the system except for it being powered down completely for 2 weeks.

Does this make any sense?

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.

David,

Minor pops on stop/prev/next seems to occur on these players. The swapout unit does so as well as my repaired unit (although rarely). A technician suggested this may be due to the player not having a muting circuit.

However, I only experienced volume related spikes with the faulty board. You may want to experiment with the grounded/ungrounded switch and/or checkout your system grounding. In my case this had no effect on the problems but I do get better performance with the switch on ungrounded.