Ssssh, is your tube preamp really that quiet?

Tried out the Audio Research Reference 3 recently. The sound from drumheads, guitars, voices and liquid cymbals was wonderful!
But eaven if the Ref3 is a great preamp famous for it's quietness compared to other tube preamps... there is some (eaven if it's little) grain in the soundpicture anyway.
You must spend some good money on a powercleaner besides the mandatory good powercords I guess.
Compared with the preamp in my SS Bladelius Thor III (which is not in the same priceclass), the Thor is much more quiet or black in the background and gives an impression of more 3D (but not detail!).
And it's not a subtle difference!
It's sad...
The detailed, liquid sound from the Ref3 would be fantastic with a quiet background.. but maybe it's possible with a great powerfilter... I don't know..
I'm givin up the Ref3 and will try out a better dac-source for more soundstage, "blackness", clearer soundbodies, 3D and details instead.

FWIW the Ref 3 is a line stage. This thread is about phono sections.

Err Ralph, when I started the thread, i was actually talking about both phono and line stages; however, it quickly became evident that the phono stage is more of a factor. BUT, I think that Tube Line stages seem to suffer from the same problems, perhaps less obviously so, but nonetheless not totally quiet at all volume levels with no input signal. Is that not a fact with all Tube Line stages as well?

It is. Usually line stage noise is negligible unless you have speakers with high efficiency- 96 db or so and you may have to think about it. When loudspeakers get up to 104 or more, quite often the amplifier noise can be an issue too.

With most line sections the position of the volume control has little to no effect on noise. But I do know of some where the volume control is post-gain stage (the Dude, for example); such line sections are affected by the volume control position.

Why would a volume control (attenuator) after the gain stage affect the level of noise? Wouldn't that be true only of a volume control that is before the gain stage? Or have I somehow got this backwards in my head? I sense that I still have much to learn!