VMK20: Right earbud crackling with noise cancelling on?
This is one of the most common VMK20 issues, and the good news is that most of the time you can fix it without sending anything anywhere. Sometimes you can't. Let's go through what's happening and what you can try before you ship your headphones off to Jasse's desk in Kajaani.
What causes the crackling?
The VMK20's noise cancellation uses four microphones and an ADI chipset that calculates a counter-signal for ambient noise in real time. Crackling usually comes from one of two things:
- A software hiccup. The Bluetooth chip and the ANC chip are separate systems in the VMK20. Sometimes they get tangled up with each other, and the ANC chip starts producing noise of its own. This is the easy case.
- A physical fault in the microphone or the ANC chip. A couple of years in a pocket, a backpack, and at the hot dog stand collects moisture and dust. The mic diaphragm can get damaged, or there can be a cold solder joint on the chip. This is the less easy case.
Since the crackling disappears when you turn off noise cancelling, the fault is specifically in the ANC system, not in the speaker element itself. That's already useful to know.
How to fix it
Try these in order:
- Factory reset with the AUX cable. Plug a 3.5mm cable into the headphones, then unplug it. This disconnects the Bluetooth chip and forces the system to reset. Simple, but surprisingly effective.
- Clean under the ear pad. Remove the right ear pad (twist it off) and check that there's no dirt or hair in the ANC microphone opening. That alone causes exactly this kind of crackling. There are no firmware updates for the VMK20, so the fault isn't in the software.
- Check that the ear pads are seated properly. Even if the pads are brand new, make sure they're fully in place. ANC microphones are sensitive to air leaks: if there's a gap between the pad and your ear, the chip tries to compensate for the leak, and the result sounds like crackling.
- Test ANC in a quiet room. A faint, steady hum in silence is normal. That's just the ANC chip's own noise floor, and it disappears the moment you start playing music. But if you hear clear crackling, popping, or random clicking, the problem is real.
- Turn ANC off completely and back on. The ANC button is on the left earbud. Press it off, wait ten seconds, then press it back on. Keep in mind that the VMK20's ANC doesn't switch off automatically with the headphones, it's a separate system.
If that doesn't help
If the crackling continues after the reset and the check, it's most likely a physical fault in the ANC microphone or chip. At that point the headphones need to go in for repair.
Send us:
- A photo of the headphones (so we can see the model and condition)
- Your order number or roughly when you bought them
- A short description of the problem (when it started, whether it's in both ears or just the right one)
The address is info@valco.fi. We repair the unit in Kajaani. If the warranty is still valid, the repair is free. If the headphones are over 24 months old, the repair package costs a bit, but still less than a new pair.
At Valco, we don't throw headphones in the trash. That's another thing that sets us apart from the big guys, whose idea of a repair manual is "buy new ones."
