Relentless fragile egos around here...note to self: I really have to try to be more gentle. The Max I have is utterly quiet, but Schiit warns about locating these things near gear with transformers (I worried about that as I have a Bryston Bit-15 with its huge Piltron transformer, but all is well with the Max) ...I also haven't heard any hiss from it when testing higher frequencies so maybe I'm just lucky. I have a couple of Lokis also and they're very quiet. Results may vary I suppose but the Max is superb in my rig.