The pops have nothing to do with any technology. The explanation that they are correlated to what semiconductor material is used (GaN or Si) is basically non-sense. In general, all these issues of pops at turn-on or turn-off are related to the timing circuit that controls the operation of the power supply, and in the case of Class-D topologies, also the PWM block of the output power stage. In general, a higher or lower inductance of the load (hence cables of course) may exacerbate the issue due to the extra energy that the output stage has to handle. In other words, at turn-on and off, if the timing of applying (or removing) the different voltage rails present in the circuit (main bus voltages and all the logic and analog circuit voltages) is not correct, the output transistors may be prone to be driven on for a brief period of time, which is the reason of the small (or big) spike of current going through the load (speaker), hence the pop.
GaN Amp & Speaker Popping Sound At Power On
Forum Members,
I just got a GaN400 amp and when it is powered on, the speakers make a popping noise that is about the magnitude of the music at the Peachtree startup setting (volume of 3 out of a possibility of 8). It does this whether I use the 12 volt trigger from the PreDAC or manually power on the amp on by pushing the power on button. There is no way to start the amp with zero volume.
I am using speaker wire with bare ends that are tightly attached to the speaker and amp connectors - verified this. The popping noise is much louder than with the Nova500 that I am in the process of trading in for these new units.
I have observed that the popping tends to be louder with a longer gap between turning off and turning on (similar to the music volume at startup) vs turning off and on with a few second delay (sometimes quite a bit less loud than the music volume at startup).
Is this induced speaker popping noise a concern for long-term speaker damage with many on/off cycles?
Those of you with this amp or other GaN amps, do you experience a similar popping sound out of your speakers at powerup? Peachtree technical support stated that this was a characteristic of GaN technology.
Note, other than powerup, this amp is dead silent as far as noise induced artifacts, including when powering it off.
Appreciate your thoughts. (Note that I am querying both Peachtree and my speaker manufacturer about this, but would like to hear back from you all.)
I just got a GaN400 amp and when it is powered on, the speakers make a popping noise that is about the magnitude of the music at the Peachtree startup setting (volume of 3 out of a possibility of 8). It does this whether I use the 12 volt trigger from the PreDAC or manually power on the amp on by pushing the power on button. There is no way to start the amp with zero volume.
I am using speaker wire with bare ends that are tightly attached to the speaker and amp connectors - verified this. The popping noise is much louder than with the Nova500 that I am in the process of trading in for these new units.
I have observed that the popping tends to be louder with a longer gap between turning off and turning on (similar to the music volume at startup) vs turning off and on with a few second delay (sometimes quite a bit less loud than the music volume at startup).
Is this induced speaker popping noise a concern for long-term speaker damage with many on/off cycles?
Those of you with this amp or other GaN amps, do you experience a similar popping sound out of your speakers at powerup? Peachtree technical support stated that this was a characteristic of GaN technology.
Note, other than powerup, this amp is dead silent as far as noise induced artifacts, including when powering it off.
Appreciate your thoughts. (Note that I am querying both Peachtree and my speaker manufacturer about this, but would like to hear back from you all.)