Need help w/ Audible Illusions M3A

Marakanetz made a good point -- you're wasting 2 tubes since you don't need phono playback. How about replacing it with the L-1!

I'm new to tube gear as well -- I own the AI-2D. The hiss could be early stage of tube failure, noisy volume pot as mentioned above, or it could very well be RF interference. I experienced all of the above.

From what I understand, the latest (3rd+) generation Modulas preamps don't run the tubes as hard as the previous ones. I'm using russian 6H23N-EB, Mullard 6DJ8, and Amperex Orange globe with good success in my 2D. JAN Philips and Sylvania 6922s died within 2 months though. I was told that the 188CC/PCC88/7DJ8 tubes, though rather scarce and expensive, are good for the AI phono stage as they have higher tolerance (can't expand more on that). I'd stay away from the 6N1P unless advised by the factory.

I guess I should add that the reason I bought the M3A, is that I plan to get a turntable at some point in the near futur and wanted to have the flexibility at that time, so for now I'll just use the line stage.

Are there any good resources on the web besides Upscale Audio to source tubes?

I own a AI M3A and i haven't had any tube eating problems although I do use a pair of pearl tube coolers on the line stage tubes. This preamp has a pair of switches that drop the gain down it could be that only one of the switches is set to low gain and that the right channel is still set to high gain so your system has too much gain on that side which causes a lot of hiss depending on the system especially if you have a solid state amp. I would check this first since it would cost nothing to fix if that were the problem.

Opiv1: Thanks for the response, what kind of tubes are you running with sucess? Also, are the gain switches inside the preamp?

Thanks for the help.

Trailrunner,
M3a phono section will not suffice for the descent analogue setup.
Much wiser investment will be for AE3 and separate phonostage such as EAR834P. Alltogether you gain performance on both linstage and phonostage sides.