Amp "pop" on startup. Bad for IEMs?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RingingEars 

My iBasso D-Zero has an annoying pop when I fist kick it on. I assume larger headphones can handle this, but what about sensitive BA IEMs?

i would strongly recommend unplugging the headphones during power-up/power-down if the pop is loud enough to be of concern. i'm sure this amp is a different story altogether, but as you can see, it's definitely stressing the driver of these K702's. DC current is very bad for headphones, as it causes the driver to move in one direction continuously, sometimes well beyond it's rated xmax.

Well, pre-relay Asgard is an extreme example to bring up, maybe not that relevant.

If you hear a pop and it's not borderline painfully loud, that means it's pretty much in the range of music you might be playing, right?  The amp is delivering power to the IEMs—whether or not a pop comes from music or from a turn-on transient, the IEM will move and make sound.  It shouldn't be more damaging than if your music had a pop or other sound in it at that level.  The exception is if the transient contains significant low-frequency content so low that it's not really audible (see the Asgard example above).  Then it could be damaging, but you may not hear anything.  Anyway, a typical pop from most amps is mostly higher-frequency, and you hear what you get.

If you trust them, you can probably just ask iBasso about it.  Ideally you could just measure the transient.