My questions would be: how loud is the hiss? How far do you have to turn up the volume control before you start hearing it? Is it audible in the range that you use to listen to music? In my experience a phono stage will almost always generate significant hiss if you turn your system's volume control all the way up.
I read about people who can only hear a faint hiss if they put their ear up to the tweeter when the volume pot is wide open. I can’t even imagine how that happens. With every combo of gear I’ve had in my system (tubes, SS, pre/power, integrated, power conditioner, no power conditioner), turning the volume all the way up generates 60-85db of hiss (measured at the tweeter), easily audible from the next room. In most cases with gear I’ve tried, the hiss doesn’t become audible until the volume control is at about 50% (varies by component, of course), which is much louder than I would ever listen.
As long as the hiss is below the level at which you listen, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’ll drive yourself crazy (and spend a lot of money) trying to stamp out that last bit of hiss.
Good luck!
I read about people who can only hear a faint hiss if they put their ear up to the tweeter when the volume pot is wide open. I can’t even imagine how that happens. With every combo of gear I’ve had in my system (tubes, SS, pre/power, integrated, power conditioner, no power conditioner), turning the volume all the way up generates 60-85db of hiss (measured at the tweeter), easily audible from the next room. In most cases with gear I’ve tried, the hiss doesn’t become audible until the volume control is at about 50% (varies by component, of course), which is much louder than I would ever listen.
As long as the hiss is below the level at which you listen, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’ll drive yourself crazy (and spend a lot of money) trying to stamp out that last bit of hiss.
Good luck!