[hyperreal]

I hooked up my Icon Mobile to let it burn in while I was at lunch only to come back and find it putting a loud popping noise through my headphones. I had the amp hooked up to USB for charging but was using my iPod as the source. I had forgotten that my computer goes into sleep-mode after 15 minutes so I'm wondering if that was part of the problem. I frantically disconnected my headphones which didn't give me the chance to diagnose the problem since my first priority was saving my headphones. When I plugged everything back in again the popping was gone. I have no clue what could have caused this since the track that was playing on my iPod was a quiet acoustic guitar piece, not loud popping. I have heard a bit about how opamps can start to oscillate if they are not fed the power they need. I wonder if this was the case. If the computer was asleep then maybe it wasn't giving power to the amp but since the USB cable was connected maybe the amp wasn't running off of its battery.

 

[visia]

My IM developed the same problem over a short period of time running through an audio-in and I had it replaced. The service by Icon guys was excellent.