I have quite a few Marantz MA700′s; of the group, four of them exhibit random popping sounds of moderate energy at the speaker output with no audio input to the unit. Clearly this is a very common failure mode for the MA700.
I have opened one of the “poppers” up on the bench, and with the buffer amplifier signal cable to the power amplifier disconnected, the popping noise remains, so it’s definitely not in the audio path on the buffer amplifier board. The buffer amp is connected to the power amp via an electrolytic, so there’s no problem unplugging the buffer from the power amp.
There’s another problem with this unit, too: I see somewhat random engagement of the high power rail mode for the amp, but this is not co-incident with the clicking coming from the speaker.
When the high/low power state switches randomly, the associated relay clicks, which is audible at very low volumes, and this is obviously not the design intent. Erratic high/low power switching problems are going to be nearby QU05, very likely the electrolytic CU08, the diodes DU01 and DU02, or QU05 itself. I’d suspect CU08 first.
The main amp PCB shows evidence of excessive heating towards the front of the chassis, where the driver section is located. Unfortunately, it looks to me that the mechanical assembly is complex with regards to the main amp and attached heat sink; taking it apart looks to be quite a big deal, my vision has become very poor, and I don’t actually need the amp, so I’m just going to close up. However, at least this exonerates the buffer amp and provides a pointer as to how to troubleshoot high/low rail power issues.
If anyone locates a specific component that is responsible for the clicking and popping, I would very much appreciate hearing about it; I’m willing to hack in a replacement electrolytic from the component or solder side of the board if that’ll solve the problem. Likewise, if circumstances lead me there — if one of my working MA700′s fails and I really need to fix one of these “poppers” — I’ll post what I’ve learned.
I’ve put the service manual for the MA700 online here.
–Ben, AA7AS
It’s up there now.
