Most likely causes of 'pop' when changing track or source on head unit

[Atlanta007 10+ year member]

Hello, I'm running a fairly basic system in an older Mercedes. An Alpine CDA-9805 head unit, a Clarion compact 4 channel amp and a set of 4" coax Helix speakers in the front and pair of 5 1/4" Alpines in the rear deck. I didn't want to cut or alter this car to provide for components, and I'm not running a subwoofer. The system sounds pretty good, but I get a very audible and annoying 'pop' from all 4 speakers most of the time I change tracks on the cd or ipod, or switch source from cd to aux (ipod) to radio. I don't get any alternator whine and I've rechecked and improved the grounds for the HU and the amp, but no change in the pop.

Is this typically a wiring issue, maybe the RCAs too close to power or speaker wires, or does it sound like a problem with the HU? I'm using decent quality rcas and quality 16 gauge speaker wire. Thanks for any input.

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[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

any input

It sounds like a headunit issue. The amp is only playing what is supplied to it, so it is not the issue. If it was a constant whine or hum, I would suspect amp's capacitors.