Speakers popping when amp turned on

[Blainetoner]

Hi, I bought a Rotel RA 931 on ebay, which when I got it home and hooked it up to my main system worked fine......gave a very dull thump when I turned the power off.....but that was it. I have now hooked it up to my bedroom system and now the speakers pop when I turn the power on.....as well as the dull thump at power off. The difference in speakers is that the bedroom ones are older KEF C20s rated 90db/8ohm as opposed to KEF Q55s rated 91db/6ohm. Could it be that the more sensitive C20s are picking up the pop....or could it be the cables that I am using? Using QED silver aniversary in the living room versus Cabletalk 3.1 stuff in the bedroom.....most also confess to a little bit of cable splicing to make a longer run out of two pieces....could this also be an issue? I did have a search but did not find anything that completely fitted with my issue. Ben Ben

 

[Andrew Everard]

More likely to be the more sensitive speakers making the noise more obvious. The 'pop' will probably be a muting relay, which disengages just after you turn on once the amp has stabilised, and in an old amp may have got a little dirty - and therefore noisy - with age.

 

[ESP2009]

In days gone by my personal experience was that such a phenomenon was 'normal' - strict instructions were always followed: turn volume down to minimum when switching amp on or off!

 

[Blainetoner]

thanks to you both.....
turning vol down doesn't make a difference.

I used to get a horrible sound from my old CA A1 amp when i turned it off....which would be stopped by muting prior to turning off.....but the rotel doesnt have a mute feature.....lovely sounding amp tho

 

[Binman]

I have an older Rotel Amp too. I think it may be the 931 too, mine only makes a faint dull thud on power off. Its running a pair of old B&W 601 Series 1 speakers.

However, reason for posting - muting button: If you connect your speakers to the speaker terminals marked 'Remote' as opposed to 'Direct', you can use the button on the front panel marked 'Remote Speaker' to act as a sort of mute button for you, as the button cuts off sound to the Remote speakers. I think I read it was there for when you want to listen to headphones, as the amp will not automatically cut the sound to the speakers when you insert a pair of headphones.

 

[aliahk]

I have this too with my 2 yr old naim 5i-2 amp. Every time I switch the power on it makes a noise.

I'm glad you can leave it on because that sound gives me the creeps 🙂

 

[Anonymous]

If you read the owner's manual it's normal for your amp to do this - pop on R channel , pop on L channel ; after the unit is turned on .

 

[Anonymous]

My bro's got exactly the same prob with his creek amp/kef coda 2 set up. Scary when it first happened i thought: "wtf was that"?