strange hiss problem

Are you using balanced cables between them or single-ended? (rca) YBA had a nasty habit in the past of putting "balanced" aes/ebu outputs on their CD players, but they didn't have a truly balanced (differential?) circuit. So, when you try to use balanced cables to a balanced preamp, you got hissy noise...
Either way, you sould try running your CD player into another system and see of you get the noise there too. IF it's quiet, then the problem lies somewhere else...?

Hi Golden ears, thanks for the advice. The audio refinement only has single-ended (rca) outs, nothing balanced. I'm afraid I can't put in iinto a different syxtem at the moment :(

Though I did try a sony cdp in there, and it fixed the problem. $75 Sony cdp's should never fix problems!