Oh, and yes. Solution was unplug and plug back the ribbon cable that goes from one board to the other one.

I feel compelled to add my experience with the hope that someone finds it useful.  I bought a used Eventide SPACE and uppon arrival, experienced the exact same symptom as the original poster – random crackles and pops while playing (similar to when an audio signal clips).  In my case, this crackling occured more prominently when I used the wackier reverb algorithms like BLACKHOLE and SPIRAL (or what have you).  

Since I live in Malaysia, the thought of having to send it across to the USA and pay the bench fee + shipping was just too costly.  So about an hour ago, I dismantled the stompbox and in doing so disconnected the ribbon cable that connects the two boards inside the stompbox.  When I put it all back together (including reconnecting the ribbon cable), I discovered that the crackling and popping have disappeared!!!  No, I don’t have any scientific explanation why unplugging/re-plugging the ribbon cable works, but I believe it does, somehow.

I’m going to play with the unit for a few days and make sure the symptoms do not recur and I will report back if it does.  Thanks tcejbuS!