Hissing sound coming from tweeters

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.

89db snr @1 watt isn't high enough?

I'd experiment with cable placement / orientation before changes which cost $$$.
See if raising speaker cables off the floor or getting them away from the interconnects makes any change.....

SS ammplifiers and sometimes preamplifiers can have a hi noise floor most never hear it because designers thought only low or average efficiency loudspeakers would be used. And most do such. But if using horns on SS it can be hard to find a low noise SS design. I do know NAD newer bee amplifiers are horn friendly and affordable. I design loudspeakers and trust me SS amplifiers can have more noise on horns than tube amplifiers.