Ssssh, is your tube preamp really that quiet?

I've owned many very quiet tube preamps. Are you hearing tube noise with the volume knob set at regular listening levels in between CDs/LPs? Or are you turning the volume all the way up with no music playing to see if you can hear any noise? I find that on a lot of tube preamps, if I turn the volume all the way up and do not play music I can hear some noise....but I really do not see the point in doing this. With the volume knob set at regular listening levels my tube preamps have been mostly quiet.

If you are having this problem at normal listening levels, have you tried changing out some of the tubes?

Well I just put my ear right up to my speaker and sure enough I heard tube hiss from my Cary SLP-98P. I guess I'm not used to listening just for noise. I usually mute the preamp while changing sides on an LP. So I had to unmute it and put my ear right up next to the tweeter to hear the noise. It was inaudible more than a foot away.

So yes, tubes are not as quiet as solid state, but I guess I always knew that. Tubes certainly sound better to me while the music is playing though. As long as I'm listening to music, and not listening for noise, I think I'll stay with tubes.

03-18-14: Charles1dad
Jmgrogan2,
You have your priorities in order and I happen to agree with your conclusion(while the music is playing). For the record my DHT tubed line stage is silent.
Charles,

Thank you Charles. For the record, the hiss I heard was through the built in MC phono stage on my Cary preamp while listening to LP's. Just for fun, I just repeated this test through the line stage, volume up, no music playing. I could still hear a hiss when I put my ear right up to the tweeter. Again, I don't really know what purpose this serves. It seems like useless information to me, but there it is.

Cheers,
John

To all of those who are saying that their tube preamp is dead quiet, remember, we are not talking about normal use here. The OP is talking about his tube phono stage/line stage preamp, no signal, volume turned up, ear right next to the tweeter.

In my first response I said my all tube preamp was very quiet, however, when turning the volume up and placing my ear within 2 inches of the tweeter, I can hear a hiss with no music playing. Of course this has nothing to do with listening to music, but this is what the topic of the post is about. Not tube line stages, or how it sounds from 8 feet away in between tracks, but 2 inches away with no signal. Try it, you may be surprised to find out that you do indeed have a hiss. Of course the hiss is meaningless, and has no bearing on enjoying music, but tubes do make noise.