Strange Loud Popping Sounds

I wonder if you are overloading your integrated amp with a over-gained phono signal.

i have the Lyra Delos, and I have a Whest ps.30r phono preamp with variable gain. When I use it at 60db gain, I have no issues. When I use it at 65db gain, it overloads the preamp (Audio Research LS-25).  

I also had had the same issue in the past with a variable gain PS Audio phono pre and the same ARC preamp, and a different cartridge.  Too much phono pre gain, and the signal cracks and pops when it got to the ARC LS-25.

no issues now, I just keep it at 60db gain.

hope this is helpful...

I wondered if it might be related to the gain setting on the preamp, but it didn't make sense to me.  I will try changing the gain setting and report back.  Thanks for the suggestion!

OK, so after a while I have finally gotten around to trying different loading options to see if that was the problem.  My cartridge is a low output MC Lyra Delos and with my other amp I was running it on the 100 ohm setting with great results.  With the Primare amp I switched it to the 47 ohm setting to see if the pops would go away.  I listened to 3-4 album sides last night with no pops, but after that the pops returned just as loud as before.  
I then tried the MM setting on the JC3.  While the pops seemed to be gone the sound quality was not good, so I quickly eliminated that setting as an option.  
I'm really stumped.  I love the sound of the Primare amp but my primary source is analog so if I can't figure this out I will need to go another direction.  
Any other ideas?  Thanks!

Sounds like a bad capacitor, had the same thing in my manley chinnook.  Do the pops startle you and cause extensive woofer excursion?

Yes!  Very startling and lowering the volume on the amp does not reduce the sound of them.

I did not experience this when playing digital sources, only analog.  

Are you sayiong a bad capacitor in the amp or the phono preamp?  I just sent the amp in for repair as it completely lost all sound out put.  Could it be capacitor related I wonder?

I guess I will know soon.

Thanks 

I couldn't tell you for sure but the signal path for digital should be the same after the preamp input jacks, so i would bet on the phonopre.  The other reason I think this is a discharge at the phonopre level would be amplified extensively especially if you are using MC carts, thus the tremendous volume even at relative mild listening levels.  I would swap in another phonopre if you can.  good luck.

Jeff

Does the phono section ever do this when nothing is playing?

The Delos and the JC3 (particularly the original JC3-gain was reduced in the JC3+) are not a good match. See:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/new-toys-parasound-jc3-phono-preamp-lyra-delos-cartridge.34119...

Too much output and too much gain. It's a bad combination. 

Any updates?