The new, replacement tv began making the same popping/clicking sound about 5 days ago. I called the store in town and talked with the salesman...turns out that on my first tv, they ended up replacing digital power board and that fixed the problem. We discussed it and since this set started doing the same thing less than 2 weeks of my having it, we're going to do a swap-back to the repaired one this coming Wednesday afternoon. Technically, this should be the end of the problem.
So, if anyone else encounters this issue, the digital power board would be the first thing to ask about.
Hope this helps others in case it happens to anyone else...