Circuits (or not) used to reduce the "pop" noise on amplifier turn on?

basically what the title of the thread is...what are some ways used to reduce or eliminate that "pop" noise when an amp is turned on? And just as a side thing, what specifically causes the pop? the charging of the filter capacitors?

A big amp will "thump" through the speakers when it starts. Many amps have a time delayed speaker relay to stop that.

hmmm ok thank you #12! that was an idea i had considered as i am using a soft start circuit for something else right now and i was thinking i could modify it for the amp

There are several issues that may be causing the pop. Pretty much all simplify down to a sudden DC level change. They depend on what you are doing to "turn on" the amplifier. Are you using an amplifier chip that has an enable pin? Are you fet or transistor connecting the speaker? Or are you enabling a signal into an amplifier that is always driving the speaker?

Some things that cause speaker pop are having a dc offset build up on the coupling capacitor that connects to the speaker. The other issue can be the phase of the signal that suddenly is driving the speaker (consider an output signal that is at the peak of its cycle, and you suddenly enable it through the amplifer, you go from 0 volts directly to the max voltage). Probably a few other causes, its been a while since I had to design around this issue.

JimW

lol it make me think of my old house home theatre subwoofer, it has a defective relay, and when it starts it make a huge boom noise and also when it stop (maybe 5 min after no sound) it is good to see reaction of people that ask me what was that!

If the amplifier has a single-polarity power supply then some coupling capacitors must charge when the power supply is turned on which causes a POP.
A dual-polarity power supply does not have a huge coupling capacitor driving the speaker and does not have any coupling capacitors that must charge so the POP might just be a little "click".

wow guys thanks!!
-JimW...i understand what you mean! that could definitely cause some major "thumpage" for a second there depending on the volume i have the amp set at!!
-Carmusic...hahahahaha oh that must have been fun to see all that!! well, i'm gonna make sure my system doesn't pull that move on me lol
-Audioguru... yah, my amp is a dual polarity chip amp and when it's by itself, (input is direct to the chip), it just makes that slight click noise like you were saying...it's just whenever i add the other features to the amp such as the preamp it will start to do that thumping thing again, but not too loud tho...you can definitely hear the amp turn on however, its not THAT quiet

It is your preamp that causes the POP. Your power amplifier simply amplifies the POP.

ok! i 'll see what i can do about fixing it then