Sudden Static Noise in between tracks

I have had this experience on two different Touch players recently. It hasn't happened on the system for a few years . Playing FLAC recordings I get sudden very loud static bursts and distortion lasting several seconds. I am hoping the speakers were not damaged. I had both players set to Fade In and Out of songs as I was led to believe from other posts the issue was related to cross fading. I just changed that setting to no fade and I will see if that makes a difference. Anyone dealt with this issue?
Edit:using a toslink optical connection to a Sabaj switching amp