Ssssh, is your tube preamp really that quiet?

Ralph, thank you. I was beginning to believe that my tube phono section was faulty...same with the preamp. Particularly after reading some of the other posts on this thread. BUT, I kind of figured that some of these examples aren't all tube phono stages and IF they are, then the user isn't listening close to the speaker with the volume up and no music playing. I guess like everything in our hobby, there are trade-off's to be made. I'm still firmly in the tube camp though...particularly in the preamp stage.

Very interesting thread because I hear the same ssssh sound
from my tube preamp coming through my 102db efficient
speakers. This noise is the same regardless of the preamp's
volume setting. I have been able to reduce it substantially
by turning the level controls down on the power amp. Changing
out the tubes did nothing to eleviate this noise. The amp
associated is a Class D switching amp.

Interesting - my Veloce tubed preamp and phono stage are perfectly quiet no matter what the volume is turned up to. Prior to that, my VAC Renaissance preamp/phono stage was also dead quiet. The only time there was ANY noise whatsoever from either preamp was when a tube was starting to fail. Replace the tubes and back to the quiet!

Phd, your hiss is coming from your line section, not the phono.

Jwpstayman, your preamp makes hiss but not at the levels you play with the cartridge you use. All preamps make hiss- its a fact of life.

Ralph, I had a Croft amp once designed for LOMC. It used parallel ECC88s and 24volt B+. It did have some tube hiss but worked well enough until any of the triode sections went microphonic. I tried swapping the psu for 2x12v lead acid batteries but it robbed the life out of it. On AC, it sounded great, notwithstanding the tube noise.