Crackling sound when using a DAC

I always get a quick, loud and sharp crackle...its bad and very loud. I've tried everything, I have noticed that it only happens after closing the CD drawer and the cd begins to load, the speakers burst out in crackle. I have avoided this problem by switching the Museatex to optic settings, then switching back to Wire (coxial) when the disc has loaded and playing, everything seems fine.

Surely there has to be a better way so I can get rid of this very unpleasent distortion and not have to worry about switchin my DAC settings everytime I change a disc.

Hey Oxia, I have my amp's volume set to 0 and it still happens. What i meant by switchin to Optic was, I only change the setting, there isn't really a wire hooked up there, but when I change to optic setting, allow the disc to load, then press play on the NAD, I switch back the DAC to wire setting, and no cracks or distortion.

It's very strange indeed.

It was the NAD, I've since used another Transport and I didn't get the problem.

I have no idea why this happens with the NAD. I can avoid the problem by switching it to optical and then back to coax once it's loaded.

Im not sure I could buy a DAC that would beat the NAD handsdown for under $500 as a simple transport, so I might keep the NAD for awhile, I've seen a Theta and CAL audio Lab transports for sub $500 but I have no way of telling if they would be a sonic improvement to the NAD, so I might just live with it for awhile.

Hey Sean, thx. Do you know of any used CDP's that I could buy and use as a dedicated Transport, which would have a digital signal sent out at all times? Ideally I'd like to sell my NAD 541i and use that money to buy an equally as good transport. Perhaps an older ROTEL, ARCAM, or something? The idea of a detachable power cord for future upgrades would be also nice.