[catastrofe]

My tube pre has too much hiss for my liking.  My current speakers are 90db efficent, but they are being replaced by Salk SS10s at about 85db efficiency.

Will/should the reduction in efficiency reduce the hiss?

[avahifi]

Yes, the level of your hiss will go down 5 dB with the wonderful Soundscapes.  It may even go down more than that if your present speakers had a response peak in the "hiss" range.  A less efficient speaker means a better single to noise ratio.  The noise from your preamp is a constant, now you will have to feed out more signal so the signal to noise ratio will improve.

Congratulations on the Soundscapes.  I wish I could afford them.

Frank Van Alstine

[catastrofe]

Congratulations on the Soundscapes.  I wish I could afford them.

Frank Van Alstine

Thanks Frank.  I wish I could afford them too!!!   

[iGrant]

umm, your hiss will stay the same or go up is my thinking as you crank the pre more to overcome the 5db loss in a speaker swap to stay at your listening level. Are you sure it is the pre that is the cause of the hiss?

Cheers,
Ian

[catastrofe]

Yes, Ian, the hiss is definitely from my pre and it doesn't change with gain.  I'm inclined to think it will be reduced with lower sensitivity speakers.  I guess I'll find out soon enough!