Hissing sound coming from tweeters

I was originally using a Marantz 2270 as a pre-amp, but began having some serious problems with it after it was "refurbished". I demoed a couple pre-amps, one was the Ayre K-5xe and the other was an NAD C326BEE. The difference between the two was night and day so I picked up the Ayre on Audiogon (the hi-fi store wanted $2,800 + 9.8% sales tax for a demo model).

I would have to hear the Bottleheads and see if I like them. I have always liked the sound of Mcintosh amps, but they are out of my price range for now.

I would say you are one lucky 25 year old. The Ayre is a great piece to build the system around. I would move slowly. Start by trying to find what other RF7II users are using. There are lots of good, used amps out there from people like Ayre, Bryston, Classe, Edge, Naim, Parasound, Pass Labs, Plinius etc. Power is not the main issue here. Tubes are certainly possible, depending on how much you use the system for home theater and TV. You can probably sell your Emotiva amps pretty easily. Do your research. You have a great base to build on. Take your time. Good luck.

The RF7 II's and the Ayre are my favorite components of my system by far. I'm definitely lucky to have a setup like this. I bought the Ayre used, that's the only way I could afford it.

@josefm: I tried what you suggested by removing the interconnects. The hiss isn't as prominent, but it is still there. I think my new XLR cables may have enhanced the hiss slightly. Ayre states on their website that the maximum gain on the preamp is 4db with unbalanced outputs and 10db with balanced outputs. I guess there isn't a whole lot I can do about it until I upgrade the mono blocks someday. I need to get a bigger place so I can sit further back from the speakers. That way I probably won't even notice.

I agree that the concept of building a system around a great pre-amp is a good idea. However, very high sensitivity speakers and an amp w too high a s/n ratio is a v. bad match. If you want to stick w the Arye pre, then you should look for less sensitive speakers or an amp w a better s/n ratio. You would also want to look for a good speaker/amp match.

I don't want to get rid of the speakers or the pre-amp. If I have to get rid of the Emotivas eventually it wont be a big deal. I think I got them for $279 each, which is minimal compared to the speakers and the pre-amp. I like having some headroom that the more powerful amps offer. Unfortunately I went cheap and bought the Emotivas. I couldn't find anything that packed 200 wpc that matched the same price/quality point as the Emotivas. When I bought all my equipment I wasn't thinking about s/n ratios or anything like that. Shows how little I know about building a quality system.