Backert Labs Rhumba preamp


Hello,
I am thinking of going to an active line stage for sometime now. I have a separate thread for that and people have suggested some good choices. The reason for this thread if that, while I have all along said that  don't want tubes in the system, a few have convinced me that I should try tubes in the system, especially with ProAcs.
With that said, I researched a few tube preamps, that have XLR out and the Backert Labs Rhumba is the one that has only 2 tubes, which makes me comfortable to "deal in tubes".

I would like to hear from Backert Labs Rhumba owners who moved from Solid State preamplification to this preamp. What are the differences you heard? Any improvements?

I read a review on the Stevehoffman forum and the user mentioned that there is a "hum" in this preamp. This bothers me and hence I decided to check on this forum, if anyone has experienced this with the Rhumba in their system. One poster on this forum also confirmed the "hiss":
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/backert-preamps-any-users

So I was wondering, if there are any users who have recently purchased this preamp and what is their experience with the hum/hiss issue.

BTW, I blame Ralph of Atma-Sphere, Almarg  and my dealer for making me consider tube amps :-) Can't believe I am creating this thread.

Thanks!
128x128milpai
Reach out to Andy Tebbe of Backert Labs. He's terrific to deal and work with and I'm sure he will addresses this concern and any other questions you have. All the best.
The hum you read about was not inherent in the preamp, but was caused by the higher output impedance of the preamp combined with poor interconnect cable layout between the preamp and amp. Once the guy on the stevehoffman site got the layout right, the hum was gone.

While it does have an XLR output, it does not support the balanced standard. If it did, the hum with the interconnect cable layout would not have been an issue.
Definitely no hiss or hum is inherent in the excellent Backert Rhumba preamp. I have been running mine for almost a year now.

It’s wonderful. Crazy good sound with a pair of CBS 5814a tubes.