How to avoid hum and hiss to speakers from amps.

Balanced interconnects also help because they require less overall gain and seem to keep out unwanted noise vs. RCA. I know you really can't do that from a turntable but the more you can connect balanced the better off you are.

I agree that using tubes with very high sensitivity speakers can make for a noisy system. Tube based systems typically have higher gain and ANY noise that is generated is easily reproduced through the higher than average sensitivity speakers. Havng said that, i've had systems that were VERY quiet with speakers that were rated at 104 dB's @ 1 watt. Like anything else with audio, you have to work at it. Sean
>

I think every SET amp I've ever heard of has some hum...especially if the heaters are AC right? No power conditioner is going to help...been there done that...and in my case the amp always sounded best right into the wall.
Right now I'm using a Final Labs 6 amp (batteries) with an autoformer for volume control.....dead quiet...I mean ear to the cone and nothing....I'm amazed at all the stuff I've been missing all these years...I do miss the beatiful glow of tubes.............
Steve

Nice to hear from someone else who has gone the DC way, with the Finals. Steve/Brooks, can you elaborate about the type of autotransformer you use as volume control? What about the speakers.

Judging from the responses, I'm wondering how much hum and hiss we're talking about. Volume turned up full I can hear the tweeters buzzing but not much at regular listening levels unless my ear is near the speaker. Is it the complete absence of noise or just getting rid of what can be heard at "normal" levels that's trying to be avoided? I have always lived with a bit of noise but never imagined that it could be gone.
My earlier post was for an annoying ac hum that could easily be heard at regular listening levels.