Ssssh, is your tube preamp really that quiet?

That's why I went complementary toplogy solid state. The only tubes which were sweet and quiet in my gear were Telefunken 6922's from the early sixties, specially selected for H/P. And good luck finding those - they cost the earth fifty years ago.

Manley Steelhead into Manley NeoClassic 250 monoblocks: dead quiet

I just purchased a Lector ZOE tube preamp. Dead quiet with stock tubes and I live in a high RFI area (one block from LAPD headquarters, 2 blocks from LA City Hall, cell repeaters within line of sight on the adjacent apt building).

I had a lot of problems beforehand especially when playing vinyl and now my problems are gone. It also has a fantastic soundstage.

These would pass anyone's noise test:
Audio Research Ref 5 and Ref 10
Joule Electra LAP150 and ME300

I'm not sure that any high gain tube preamp and phono stage will sound completely quiet when the gain is turned up and there is no music playing. I have never heard such a piece. OTOH, I do agree that so long as the tube noise doesn't appear to be audible when music is playing, then there appears to be no problem and I also much prefer tubes over ss. However, I do wonder how much better the overall SQ, could and would be, IF no tube hiss was present whatsoever in the system.