Crackle or pop during CD playback
 

Hello all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Once in a while, I get a "crackling" sound or pop when playing a disc. This happens very infrequently, but over the past few weeks has occurred more often. I shut the power off, cleaned all contacts (XLR and speaker connections) with ECO static inhibitor, changed the CD input to my preamp from BAL1 to BAL2, and inverted the polarity on my preamp (a Bryston BP25). So far ... this has seemed to solve the problem, after trial and error. But has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what did you do to fix it ?

The internet tells me that this is not a disc problem, which appears to be true (a crackle would occur at a certain spot on a track, and then not). And there doesn't appear to be anything amiss with my Thiel CS2.4 speakers; the sound is clear and I've never had them loud enough to clip. My Bryston amp and preamp are around 24 years old, and my Meridian player is about the same age. (Static here in Galveston shouldn't be a problem lol). Thanks for your advices.

Have you tried another source other than the CD? CD pops are not common,
if you only experience it through the CD player, my thinking would
lead me to think that to the laser diode has started to give symptoms that
is getting close to its end of life. When that happens the CD won't be
able to read CDs unfortunately.