2. amps-preamps
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Any way to reduce pre-amp noise floor?

I have had my CJ ET3-SE tubed pre-amp for about a year now. When my system (McCormack DNA 500 amp, Esoteric X-05 CD, Aerial 10T speakers) is on and the CJ is set to "0" volume there is dead silence. However once I move the volume to to any level above zero ( no music playing, of course!) I hear a very soft but audible white noise. When I return the volume to zero the noise vanishes. This concerns me because I suspect that once the music begins to play, this noise floor becomes part of the overall sound.

This is my first "separates" system so I'm not sure if this is just a standard preamp phenomanon or if it is perhaps a sonic signature of CJ or if there is some real issue that needs to be fixed or can be tweaked. Any comments/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
shoff

Showing 1 response by rower30

rower30
211 posts
 
My experience with a CJ ET3-SE was a soft white noise exactly as you described. Tubes do have a higher noise floor than SS, but the noise (I call it SHOT noise or thermal noise) seem perfectly normal with tubes. In my situation, the shot noise seemed to be "fixed" so as the volume went up, it falls farther and farther into the background. Turn your volume knob "up" and the noise should seem to stay about the same, in other words. This is why it isn't too bad with music playing. Eventually, the tube went bad, and made a scratching or sizziling sound in one channel...time for a new tube.

Go here for some tube basics on noise. I think your unit is just fine.

http://www.john-a-harper.com/tubes201/#Noise
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