I need a lower gain 12au7 for Mastersound

I guess I'm just looking for a smoother tube with a "Perceived" lower gain. I'm using a TT with a cambridge 640p on MM for my input.

I guess I'm just trying lower the gain of the whole amp. Seems to be a hiss running through the speakers, even with the volume off. Cd or TT doesn't matter. Unplugged all accessories, doesn't matter.

Maybe I just shouldn't be trying to run this amp with my La Scala's. Higher volumes sound amazing!! Lower, I get a hiss.

Thanks for the reply.
I guess I'm just looking for a tube recommendation, something NOS that has a reputation for a little less gain, but for sounding good as well.
Personally I don't really want to get into the amp and start soldering too much......

Thanks for the advice though!

What do you mean

"A simple solution to the gain issue is to use an attenuator between your CD player and the input of the Mastersound"

Yes thank you. That's not the problem though. I unplug all my accessories. Just the amp and speakers hooked up, thats all, and the hiss is still there.

It doesn't change at all when I turn the volume knob all the way up, no feedback noise(as per the amp specs!) just the same steady low hiss.

I'm just guessing now that it's that the La Scala's are too efficient, even at idle they'll have a small hiss with this amp.

I'm also guessing that swapping tubes isn't gonna change anything from the posts I'm getting here.

Oh, well. It sounds Excellent at higher volumes! I will have to just ignore this one issue that my new amp has introduced to my system.

The zero negative feedback still really blows me away....

Thank.

I'm Sorry for asking the wrong question.

I want my amp to be less noisy in the hiss department.

Where can I find tubes that are selected for low noise?

Do you think that it could be that the EL34 power tubes are too noisy as well, or probably just the preamp tubes?

In my current setup I'm running 2 JJ ECC82 Gold pin tubes for the preamp, and 4 SED Winged C EL34's in the power end, on a Mastersound Due Venti through Klipsch La Scala's.

If I can find some low noise tubes, is there any particular brand or model that someone with a similar set up would recommend?

Thanks to anyone that can help......

I'm new here..... So, sorry for the all the confusion. Some of the tech talk I don't quite get.

Thanks for all the replies guys.
This is great!

Found an old Westinghouse 12au7 kicking around in one of my boxes, put it in..... right channel has almost no hiss at all.

Follow up number 2!

Destroyed all 4 SED EL34's in the amp. The bias was way too hot when I got it and I never checked, thinking it was auto bias. Every tube was red plating with in a week.

Contacted the Italians and they were kind enough to show me how to bias this older "Semi-automatic bias" amp???

They sent pictures and everything. Very nice people.

Bought a matched quad of the EH 6CA7s last week, biased them to "no more than 6VDC" (I'm still not sure how this stuff works...)

Everything sounded beautiful. Way better.
The hiss was cut in half as well.

Then I ended up finding a guy on eBay from Moldova selling NOS RFT ECC82s matched pairs for $10 a tube...(sketchy?)
Many people on tons of threads recommended these German made tubes as the quietest tubes you could find and one of their favorite 12au7s for detail and value.

Got them today, plugged them in and Wow!

I can turn the amp to top volume and I have to stick my ear right into the squawker of the La Sacala's to even hear a slight buzz.

And for detail, they blow the JJ Golds away! Even after just a days listen.

Maybe I'm just too excited about the whole thing and posting too soon. But I PRAY that things stay this way!!

Thanks very much for all the help you guys!
Very Very appreciative!

Thanks to Viridian as well for lots of good advice keeping me a little more sane.

Thanks

Regards
-Derek