CJ pre Noise Floor


I just got a CJ PV10aL and I notice that it has a distinct noise floor that my old Rotel pre did not. The Rotel was absolutely black in teh background. The CJ isn't. Is this normal with a tube pre?

The amp is a Levinson ML-9

Thanks
eragot
You will get some tube hiss but should only be audible when you put your ear up to the speakers; say about a foot away. If it is audible from your listening chair, say 10+ feet away, then you probably have a noisey tube. Does it come from one channel specifically or both? I believe that unit only has one tube per channel, two total, so you may want to repace both especially if it is a used unit and you don't when the tubes were last replaced.

Chuck
I used to have a PV10L and agree with Chuck that it should only be audible less than one foot from the tweeters.

If you like the sound otherwise, I would replace the tubes since they could very well be worn out by this point in time. Arthur
The pv10 is not the quietest preamp offered by CJ - but is excellent for the price.
The noise is only audible about 1 foot away. Not from the listening position. So I guess it is irrelevant, I just wanted to know if it was normal.
Thanks,
Eric