How to Manage Rhea "Noise"

Xagwell, see your other post for my response to your main question.

Funny, my experience with the ARC PH-3 was quite different from yours. (I was using a fairly low output MC cartridge, which might explain the different experience though.) It was noisy enough to push me upgrade from it, and the ARC LS-2 preamp I was using , to the Ayre K-1XE preamp, with the phono boards. Quite a leap forward in my opinion.

I reckon you'll have to go through the experimentation of trying different things to try to pinpoint what the cause is, and how then to eliminate it.

I'm hoping other Rhea owners will chime in, and give you better advice than I can, but probably the basic things like where the unit is placed in regards to your other equipment (EMI), or RFI interference may be a cause?

Is this noise a hum? A hiss?

The only other things that come to mind is ground loop issues, or that the Rhea you have is somehow sensitive to "dirty" AC Mains power?

Sorry that I can't offer much more help than these suggestions, and I do hope you get this problem resolved. Mark

The Rhea I had for loan some time ago had absolutely no problems. Very silent. The original tubes need some time to burn in.
But anyway, I would change them for NOS.

"The balanced out is noisier than the RCA out."

That seems normal. Several folks have commented that the RCA outputs are quieter.

As far as noise increasing when you increase the gain, I would suspect that this is attributed to some of the stock tubes. I never cared for the Sovteks in my Rhea. I swapped them out for some of the new Tung-Sol 12ax7 and liked the sound alot more. The pairs in V1 and V2 will have the most impact on this.

I've never really had an issue with noise and I have used mine with a .25 mV Denon and balanced all the way.

Best,

Dan

Thanks all. I will be talking with Mike at MS to help me through this as well. Hopefully the following will answer a few questions. It currently resides on its own shelf. Power cords do not traverse interconnects. Noise has a sea shore charaacter, and occurs whether plugged into an AC line conditioner or wall. Swapping tubes is not an option since the unit is being field tested.

I hate to say this. sell the rhea and get a phono stage that is not noisy.
LOMC's with the rhea produces tube noise. I have had the rhea in my system twice 3 years apart and both times I had tube noise.
BTW do you still have the high output benz. you should get no noise with that.

Xagwell:
Your seashore analogy brings something to mind. Early on I had a sound which I describe as wind passing through a microphone. I'm not sure if that simulates your sound. I called Jim White and after diagnosing the problem, unfortunately it had to go back. Is the problem in one channel or both. Mine was in one channel since after swapping all the tubes from one channel to the other, the problem did not travel. The unit went back and it turned out to be a cold solder joint. Jim fixed the problem and, in fact, upgraded the power supply. After it came back, I replaced the tubes with Telefunkens and Siemens. I wouldn't describe the unit as dead quiet, but it is certainly no longer a distraction. What the unit brings in terms of palpability and realism more than makes up for a little bit of tube rush. Don't give up on this unit. It remains the cornerstone of my system and perhaps the last component I would care to part with.

Stew maybe correct. The Rhea's gain stages are all tube so it is not going to be as quiet as a J-FET. Just to give a point of reference, I have to get my ear within a foot of the speakers at moderate volume to hear any tube rush. So if you're hearing more than this there could very well be something unusual about the unit you have or some other condition involved. Again, I've used my Rhea with a low output 103R and a MO Benz Glider and never had a problem with noise.

Thanks again for the feedback. Please refer to the other post.