Quiet Popping Noise in Left Speaker

[Outland]

I have a quiet popping noise coming from the left speaker every once in a while. Never from right. Doesn’t matter if TV is tuned to RF or video, doesn’t matter what volume is set. The only way to make the sound go away is to turn the TV off, or turn the SPEAKER switch on the back to “off.”

How can I find and correct this issue? Is it normal? I have the schematics.

Here is a sound clip of the popping.

I notice that the cable for the left speaker runs right next to the tube, while the cable for the right speaker doesn't.

[zeno]

With volume all the way down crackling is almost always from audio
output IC.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[Outland]

Here is the schematic. Do you think it could be bad solder joints, or the IC itself is bad? Looks like there's an IC for each channel. The IC (NTE1789) is still available.

I'm going to try tapping it with the set on and see if the sound changes.

[Dude111]

I hope its an easy fix my friend