Constant noisy tubes maybe go solid state?

Thanks aj523.  I have an ARCAM AVR550 for my home theater and use this also for music.  I have not installed the two rear surround system speakers so all of my sound is coming from the front speakers.  Actually, the sound is really good  I have a pair of Paradym 85F towers, but added a pair of REL S2 SHO subwoofers.  These really helped the sound stage and took some weight off the towers to clear up the mids and highs.  I dialed in the volume of the RELs to 40% so they would not sound too bassy and they seem to blend well.  I would like to have a dedicated two channel system after adding the rear surround speakers, but do not know how to do this from one pair of speakers and subs without having to reconnect the speaker wires each time I want to listen to  2 channel.  I did like the Parasound integrated amp.  The ARCAM AVR850 has the G technology which provides the first 50 watts in pure A quality amplification.  However, this costs $6,000.  Everything in this hobby costs a lot.  I also added a BlueSound Node 2i and the high res and MQA really adds to the quality.  I was talked into adding a ProJect S2 DAC and I preferred the Node 2i played by itself.  The DAC made things sound too thin.  I also notice better sound quality/sound stage when playing MQA.  Might be smoke and mirrors because no one in this group likes MQA.

Thanks again for your response.  Everyone in this group is so helpful and knowledgeable.  Just wish I had more money.

i am not a home theater guy, but if i were, i would agree that HT should be run with solid state gear to deliver the clarity oomph and reliability/low maintenance over long stretches - tube equipment makes a lot less sense here, as to me tubes mainly provide better tonal on acoustic instruments and voices, and also imaging - much more valued in 2 channel music reproduction...

In my experience, current-production tubes have been far, far more reliable than old-stock (new or not). This has primarily been with Russian Tung-sol and Gold Lion tubes, which are both the sort of mid-to-upper range of current production. I don't expect that the lower cost JJ, EH, or basic Shuguang would necessarily be as consistent. Having gone through hundreds of tubes in untested batches, it is exceedingly rare that these new tubes will exhibit electrical noise and even more rare for them to fail. 

Also having gone through hundreds of old-stock tubes in tested and untested lots, I can say that it is much more effort to find tubes that meet my standards for low noise and microphonics, especially if I'm looking for a pair. There is also a higher likelihood of a tube testing well and developing noise after it's been shipped. Having the tubes pre-tested by the vendor sometimes helps reduce the instances of noise, but sometimes it doesn't make a difference. My testing procedure is: external burn-in period > Maximatcher testing > in circuit listening test #1 > in circuit burn-in period > in circuit listening test #2.

While certain old-stock tubes can certainly sound great and often sound better than new-production, I find that Gold Lion and other brands sound excellent and allow much less worry about noise, so I'm on the same page as millercarbon . 

When you're buying a new amp, would you prefer the manufacturer use current production tubes as stock, significantly reducing the chance of tube noise in your new purchase, or would you prefer the manufacturer try to install old-stock tubes, though it's more likely that you'll have to deal with a noise issue?

I assume the tubes have not always had issues?  Did anything change in your environment lately?  Thuderstorm?  Electrical work?  High or low voltage?  AC socket grounding issues.
Many things can cause this.  Take your preamp to a different room, or better yet to your dealer, hook it up and see if it is a hardware problem or enivormental. Process of elimination will nail it down.

Tubes are funky devices and as soon as they are powered up they start wearing themselves out as mentioned by a well known audio company.
I don't use tubes right now because the new tube stuff sounds too much like good solid state and I sure wouldn't use tubes in a surround sound application.
If you do use tubes the most important thing is who you source them from but I still look forward to buying a tube preamp again for the use in my two channel stereo.