I purchased a Rhea on audiogon a few years ago, got it home and thought something was wrong with the noise. I spent $700 on tubes and made myself think it was better (bought an extra pair of ampex or could have done it for $500). Well... a year or so later, and more upgrades - cables, speakers and amps and preamp (left the Rhea in) and guess what? My Rhea (same tubes and everything) is as quiet as a tomb. Funny. Better (or more compatable, not sure and don't care) gear downstream quieted things nicely. The Rhea is awesome and I can only imagine what the signature upgrade will do.
Time to blast off from Rhea
I made an impulse purchase 1.5 years ago of a Rhea phono preamp. I have a low output MC cartridge, and was actually saving for an AR Reference 2. The dealer sold me his demo for a good discount. Upon getting it home, with my smaller room and efficient speakers, heard the noise. Dealer not willing to take it back as it was a demo sale. I replaced all the tubes with a set from Jim Mcshane which made the situation tolerable, but with limited use, these tubes became intolerably noisy. Put in some vintage RCA tubes in the V1/V2 and it sounds great again. Is this just the price to pay for pure tube amplification of 56 db? Should I just sell it, and buy the Parasound JC3 and be done with it?