I have the V4's and the background is dead quiet. If you go up to the amps themselves with no music playing, you can hear a slight hum but nothing at all over the speakers. My Merlin's were a lot noiser with the Audio Research D-125 amp I used to have. Oh, and they sound great and have been absolutely trouble free. There may be better amps, but they are pretty darn good and a really good value I think. The one thing I'd like to do is try an OTL amp with my speakers sometime when I can afford one but other then that, I'm sticking with the Quickies. Oh, I have used cheater plugs as I get a pronounced hum without them but thats not the transformers. I've been thinking about getting a balanced line conditioner for that issue, but it seems as though a lot of A'goner's have that issue with their systems.