@mrgary321 - You shouldn't hear any background hiss or hum from any modern solid state pre-amp. If you're hearing hiss or hum, be certain it is being caused by the pre-amp before moving to a different model.
I replaced the P5 with a Placette Passive Pre-Amp which is a completely different type of pre-amp. In fact, it's probably 180 degrees different from the P5. It had no "features" and essentially no active electronics inside the chassis. It a very well matched resistor array made from very expensive resistors. Otherwise, it only had a switch to choose inputs and a remote volume control. Not an apples to apples comparison as they are so different in their approach. For me, the "simple is better" approach of the Placette was a breath of fresh air, literally! So much resolution, air and all the other audiophile attributes. But utterly featureless......
My experience with the P5 matches @audionoobie experience with the P6 (which I understand is based mainly on the P5).
However, @arafiq has a valid point too, and compared the P5 with more similarly priced pre-amps that had more features than the Placette.
Here's the deal: You can buy the P5 and try it in your system. If you don't love it, they are pretty popular, so you could re-sell it for little/no loss, except maybe shipping. That's exactly what I did when I purchased mine. I bought it used, at a good price, tried it to see if I could get great sound quality and features (that I didn't need at the time, but was considering integrating with my HT system). It didn't meet my standards for sound quality, so I resold it for what I paid, and moved on.
Good luck in your search. As you said you are "just getting your feet wet", I can only offer this. Remember, it IS all about the music. If music played through your system makes you happy, that's all that is important (IMHO).
Lastly, I moved on to a series of Integrated Amps due to simplicity. For the last 3 years I've been using a Rega Ilicit-R w/built-in phono pre-amp (no built-in DAC). I have the matching Rega Saturn-R CD player/transport/DAC. The combo is fantastic and simple. But it's also about $6K MSRP (about $3K used, approx. $1500 for each piece).
I replaced the P5 with a Placette Passive Pre-Amp which is a completely different type of pre-amp. In fact, it's probably 180 degrees different from the P5. It had no "features" and essentially no active electronics inside the chassis. It a very well matched resistor array made from very expensive resistors. Otherwise, it only had a switch to choose inputs and a remote volume control. Not an apples to apples comparison as they are so different in their approach. For me, the "simple is better" approach of the Placette was a breath of fresh air, literally! So much resolution, air and all the other audiophile attributes. But utterly featureless......
My experience with the P5 matches @audionoobie experience with the P6 (which I understand is based mainly on the P5).
However, @arafiq has a valid point too, and compared the P5 with more similarly priced pre-amps that had more features than the Placette.
Here's the deal: You can buy the P5 and try it in your system. If you don't love it, they are pretty popular, so you could re-sell it for little/no loss, except maybe shipping. That's exactly what I did when I purchased mine. I bought it used, at a good price, tried it to see if I could get great sound quality and features (that I didn't need at the time, but was considering integrating with my HT system). It didn't meet my standards for sound quality, so I resold it for what I paid, and moved on.
Good luck in your search. As you said you are "just getting your feet wet", I can only offer this. Remember, it IS all about the music. If music played through your system makes you happy, that's all that is important (IMHO).
Lastly, I moved on to a series of Integrated Amps due to simplicity. For the last 3 years I've been using a Rega Ilicit-R w/built-in phono pre-amp (no built-in DAC). I have the matching Rega Saturn-R CD player/transport/DAC. The combo is fantastic and simple. But it's also about $6K MSRP (about $3K used, approx. $1500 for each piece).