Microphonic from Vacuum Tubes?

@acman3   +1

I have had unlistenable crackling and pops from streaming a bad file. It would be nice if you used a different source to see if it occurs without streaming.

If its randomly in both, FWIW I'd be more suspicious of your source...

I was wondering about that myself, but I don't know anything at all about streaming.  Do you have a CD player you could run for an extended period of time to see if it pops with that as your source?  If it didn't, I would think that would point to the DAC or something else in your streaming chain.

As @atmasphere said, it might not be the preamp that is causing the pop.

What are you running for an amplifier?

Generally speaking, when I have had a tube going noisy in my preamp, I could find which one it was by lightly tapping it with my fingernail or the equivalent. Something you could do is to put the tubes back in it, that Cary had in it when you bought it, and see if the pop is replicated. Maybe just put the positive phase buffers in first, and then if you still get the pop, try the input buffers. Or vice versa.

@buellrider97 , as a fellow Cary amp owner, which Cary amp was that?

@xcool

I'm inclined to think that the culprit could be something with the preamp or the new tubes.

I understand gut feelings.  As we have the same preamp, I follow your threads with interest.  You have been up & running with it for quite a while now since that earlier fiasco you experienced, haven't you?  I sort of remember you posting about the tubes you bought from Brent Jesse and it seems like that was a good bit ago (which obviously wouldn't eliminate them), but it sounds as if the Linlais are a fairly new addition.  Maybe you are on to something with your theory, so I'll wish you luck tracking this down, but just out of curiosity, with all else aside, have you been able to form an impression of the Linlais yet?

@jb1  , OP isn't sure which component in his system is causing the anomaly, and since they are all from different manufacturers. . . .

Also, I own Cary products and I like them very much, but do you know what now happens when you call Cary up for tech support?  Unlike in the good old days of Cary Audio Design they now tell you to send them an email.  My experience has been they are not always super prompt with a response.

Tube(s) getting too hot….all you have to do is wait for pop then generously spray all the tubes with water. The bad tube(s) will obviously be obscured by a cloud of vapor.

Seriously?

@sevestan , you are joking, right?

@xcool  , did you ever get to the bottom of this?

The reason it came back to my mind was (unrelated to the SLP-05 specifically) I was reading a customer review of a brand of 5AR4 rectifier tube and a pop or thud heard through both channels was mentioned.

For whatever reason, it hasn't happened since I started this thread.   So I just decided not to worry about it anymore.

I think that's a good strategy.  It's hard to fix something when it's not broken (at least that's what I always say about intermittent motor vehicle problems).