Tube amp question

[Jbmorrey]

Just purchased the Hifiman ef-5 hybrid amp, noticed after about a 10 minute warm up, when I plugged in my source (iphone6 connected via USB to headphone jack) that there was a slight low buzz that occasionally turned into a slightly higher volume tick-tick-tick, and then back to the low buzz( low buzz could have been there all along, but the tick was more obvious. What do y'all think this could be? Amp is new and so is tube. I am using an older RCA to headphone jack cable. Of course plugged into wall. Any ideas are appreciated.

James

 

[tomb]

Just purchased the Hifiman ef-5 hybrid amp, noticed after about a 10 minute warm up, when I plugged in my source (iphone6 connected via USB to headphone jack) that there was a slight low buzz that occasionally turned into a slightly higher volume tick-tick-tick, and then back to the low buzz( low buzz could have been there all along, but the tick was more obvious. What do y'all think this could be? Amp is new and so is tube. I am using an older RCA to headphone jack cable. Of course plugged into wall. Any ideas are appreciated.

James

 
I'm confused.  How do you connect USB to a headphone jack?  Then you state you're using an RCA cable to the headphone jack.  No offense, but you need to be more explicit in your description before we can tell you what might be going on.

 

[Jbmorrey]

I'm confused.  How do you connect USB to a headphone jack?  Then you state you're using an RCA cable to the headphone jack.  No offense, but you need to be more explicit in your description before we can tell you what might be going on.

No offense taken. Right now I have the Hifiman hooked(noDAC) hooked up using the RCA to 3.5mm Jack into my iPhone or ipad. I sometimes will get that ticking or clipping sound and crackles. When I hook up the Hifiman via RCA directly to my SACD player, it's absolutely silent. I have tried a new RCA to 3.5mm cable and still got the same clicks and such. I switched between my iPad and iphone, and it's much worse on iPhone, could this be something like a dirty headphone jack I am plugging into? Or is the RCA TO 3.5mm just not an ideal way to connect to my iPad? hope this makes more sense.

James