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.)
michiganbuckeye

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

Must be in their amp designs.  Some sort of audible relay protection device?
I remember we had to do quite a bit of fiddling so that when the output devices turned on the amp was already switching. So our amp starts up dead silent.
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.
@michiganbuckeye  There's no danger to your speakers.

This is not a characteristic of GaNFETs. But it is something that class D amps can do if the designer didn't do something to prevent it.