How to Manage Rhea "Noise"

"The balanced out is noisier than the RCA out."

That seems normal. Several folks have commented that the RCA outputs are quieter.

As far as noise increasing when you increase the gain, I would suspect that this is attributed to some of the stock tubes. I never cared for the Sovteks in my Rhea. I swapped them out for some of the new Tung-Sol 12ax7 and liked the sound alot more. The pairs in V1 and V2 will have the most impact on this.

I've never really had an issue with noise and I have used mine with a .25 mV Denon and balanced all the way.

Best,

Dan

The Rhea I had for loan some time ago had absolutely no problems. Very silent. The original tubes need some time to burn in.
But anyway, I would change them for NOS.

I reckon you'll have to go through the experimentation of trying different things to try to pinpoint what the cause is, and how then to eliminate it.

I'm hoping other Rhea owners will chime in, and give you better advice than I can, but probably the basic things like where the unit is placed in regards to your other equipment (EMI), or RFI interference may be a cause?

Is this noise a hum? A hiss?

The only other things that come to mind is ground loop issues, or that the Rhea you have is somehow sensitive to "dirty" AC Mains power?

Sorry that I can't offer much more help than these suggestions, and I do hope you get this problem resolved. Mark