Hey, so mostly just posting as a general rant, but also a warning for anyone thinking about picking one of these up. In August (8/22/22) of last year I bought the a90d basically right at launch.

In April, the left side of my headphones began popping and crackling. After switching things in and out of my chain, I figured out it was my a90d. Specifically the 4 pin xlr output. The SE output was totally fine and I don’t own anything that plugs into the 4.4 mm output. I started an RMA process with headphones.com on 04/02/23. I did not receive my unit back until July 28th (4 months).

Important piece of back story: I moved to a new house, switched power strips, upgraded headphones, all since starting the RMA process and before it returned to me. So I know for a fact it’s not some weird power issue on my end.

All was fine until yesterday, where once again, my headphones started popping. This time in the right ear. Didn’t take long to figure out the issue was once again the 4 pin xlr output on my a90d. Still working through a solution with headphones.com.

To answer the obvious questions: I’ve never had a problem with any other piece of my audio gear. I own nearly a dozen pair of headphones and a couple amps/dacs including mostly Topping. I don’t do that much headphone swapping. Maybe once or twice a week. I’m usually stuck on one pair as my “main” for long periods of time, only occasionally pulling another pair out for fun. So I really don’t think it’s something I’m physically doing.

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Thanks for reading my rant