Dear Raven Heads....Just recently my Nighthawk has developed an occasional cankerous snap, crackle, and pop hum buzz upon start up. I always have the volume completely down on start up. (Old habit) This began about a month ago. I thought I was hearing things but it is becoming louder and more than occasional. Nothing else has changed. Same everything....any ideas? My wife said, "Hey, whats going on with THAT?" I'm not sure. It never happens while playing. Sound is still perfect. Both channels are same volume. Imaging is stellar per usual. Going to try and recheck all power, interconnects....
I would check to see if any of your tubes are lose.
How old is the amp? Does it happen in both channels? As mentioned above. Shut it down to cool then remove and reseat all the tubes.
Hi, this is James at Raven. Please contact me and I will help you get this resolved.
Yep... This is going to be tube related I bet. Sometimes it is also tube-socket related where I had to reseat the preamp tubes. A simple fix I suspect.
DT
Dear Raven Heads.....Snap, Crackle, Pop is GONE. James C. called me and made several suggestions. So, I tried the easiest. He suggested replacing some tubes. First, up front sat a pair of my beloved Brimar 50's Black plate (CV4024). Out they went and were replaced by some 60's Mullard Copper plate Charcoal anode. Instant cure. I hate to admit it but there must have been a problem with the Brimars from the start. OR....I just like the Mullard sound ALOT better. I won't bore you with aural descriptions of the improvements but its BIG. Thanks James C. for the personal help. Surprisingly, my vinyl playback has been so transformed I've let the CD's get dusty. And as Rave Dave says, its so fun to swap tubes out. New sound all around. Much more bass, separation, slam....sorry, couldn't help but say something about the sound transformation!!! Thanks Raven Audio..you guys are beyond super.
Just an update on "snap, crackle, and pop".....all's well and staying well. I feel sure a bad Brimar tube was the culprit. Got the upgrade to "Blackhawk-ish" and got a big sound improvement overall. Also, from day one my hyper efficient Klipsch Lascalas always picked up a annoying hum that at my super morning or late night listening levels was frustrating. (around 62 db) After recently upgrading my fuse to a QSA blue, (huge sound quality improvement, placebo effect?), I reconnected back to the 8 ohm speaker taps and quickly was reminded WHY I had gone to the 4 ohm outlets! The hum became obnoxiously audible again. Returned to the 4 ohm out and viola! the hum is almost gone again AND more importantly its presence has slipped beneath that point where it is distracting. So....if you own one of these crazy efficient Klipsch Heritage use 4 ohm outputs, the quality is perfect, volume unaffected, and the only hum you'll hear will be you humming along enjoying the finest integrated amps in the world!!! Raven Audio Rocks my world. (with jazz mostly).
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