dead quiet

I hope the OP is getting something from this discussion . . . I certainly am, and appreciate all of the comments.

To be precise, from my listening chair and indeed from 2-3 ft away from my speakers, my analog rig is *dead quiet*. But if I am overcome by "irrational audiophile paranoia" and put my ear to the speakers, my analog usually has more hum/hiss than my cd player depending on the cartridge I'm using. My noisiest cartridge may indeed be audible from 2-3 ft if I crank the volume.

I caught this thread a little late,so I apologize if my point has been mentioned...

From my experience(and I'm sure others)the "dead quietness" issue is "dramatically" affected by the actual room itself!!

This is emphasized whenever I make my trips to Brooklyn,NY where two audio pals live(Sid and Ed).

Both have "dead quiet systems"...BUT... they both have different listening room "quietness levels"!!

Sid lives on a quiet block(like me)and the noise floor of his superb room allows for ALL the detail,and tonality of his "amazing" LP collection to be appreciated!Except for the occassional garbage truck passing by -:)

Ed lives in an apartment building,and although on the 22nd floor,the highway noise below,coupled with a noisey building/neighbors absolutely "devastates" a decent listening session!His magnificent/dynamic/dead quiet componentry is wasted...."during the daytime"!

In truth,from what I observe,he is almost unaware of the problem,because he's lived there for SO long!
At night it is a different story altogether.Then one can appreciate the "almost dead quietness" of his set-up.

I am lucky(big time)to have a purpose built dedicated room,which is basically adjoined to my home,on one side.This means I am not bothering family members with volume,and the closest neighbor is 100 feet away.

My noise floor is SO low,my friends kind of make fun of the situation,but this is definitely useful in getting the best from a good set-up.No extraneous noises,and easy to listen for problematic system voicings.There is a downside here....
There IS a real problem(not kidding,actually)for "this" kind of low room noise floor...

You cannot tolerate "any" additional noise,after living in this type of situation,so something like a "tradeshow" is torture!!One can get a bit too picky quite easily,but it's easy to get used to....Those of you in similar situations know this already -:)

Best

Stringreen...You are correct about the speaker efficiency not being a factor IF you make the test with the volume turned up to equal levels with the two kinds of speakers. I was wrong, (but was led astray by Atmasphere).

But you are wrong to think that a tiny inaudible 60 Hz signal could adversely affect the music signal. IAP.

Eldarttford, why do you keep advertising IAP (Internet Access Point) at the end of each post when you don't have it operational yet?

I have a modded TD125, 309 arm, Grado cart, integrated amp, battery phono stage,various other tweak-ease, and the custom speaks. Dead quiet with the pedal to the metal, most think it's a 50,000.00 sound. I assure them it is not! It only took me 40 years to get hear. Oh yeah, latest upgrade to the amp's power supply coming soon will take us way beyond even the pinnacle it's at now. Boy, the air is getting rare up here. Need oxygen !!Maybe I can get some from Obama, after he is done filling up all those tires with more air. Quiet, yeah we have quiet and beyond,finally!