Anthony, is this the first time you’re owning a Tube Amp? (Hybrid or otherwise)
It’s normal for some level of tube “hiss”, depending on the Amp’s gain and tube, when compared to solid state Amps (like your Lina Amp).
I’m guessing you didn’t have any such “hiss” issue when you used the Lina Amp. Keep all the same cables, take your Riviera out, put your Lina Amp back in the system and if the “hiss” disappears, you have your answer.
Thanks, Had a WA 33 full tube and The EF1000 hybrid. Both for a short period of time. Did not have the same issue. Lina Amp good amp but underpowered for Susvara IMO. It was however "DEAD’ quiet.
I go over all my connections again. I have been using Silver Dragon network cables from Moon Audio, nice but DCS recommends an unshielded cable for connections to their components so I will dig out my Cat5e cable and try that today. Thx again
Anthony, although using unshielded network cable is recommended as I said:
BTW Make sure that it is unshielded ( UTP). There is also CAT5e shielded (SF) made.
My main point is that @Anupc recommended a way of helping isolate where the cause of your issue may lie:
You have not mentioned that you are trying this.
Although you didn’t find hiss with other tube equipment before that does not mean you may not on this occasion. The fact that your Riveria is new is when faults are more, not less, likely to appear. Further Tubes are not as reliable as solid state components and can develop issues. I appreciate that you will have pride in your new purchase but please don’t let this mislead you.
Once you’ve confirmed the Riviera as the source of the hiss, you might want to try tube rolling it’s factory JJ ECC82 with a good low-noise (authentic) NOS Telefunken ECC802S (diamond bottoms); won’t be cheap, but the sonics will blow your mind.
I hear you and understand, just was not my first thought to check the tube. BTW any Idea where I could get the tube you mentioned? I wanted to tube roll after break in anyway?
NOS Telefunken ECC802S (diamond bottoms); won’t be cheap, but the sonics will blow your mind.
The Telefunken has a great reputation but there are others. As well as Telefunken I very much like NOS Tungsram ( a little sweeter) although I am using PC88. Not interchangeable with your tubes but I anticipate a similar sound characteristic. It is worthwhile first investigating some of the many online tube reviews online to help you decide. However as your amp is new I would expect a free replacement tube from the US distributor if the one you have is proved to be faulty.
I am loath to make recommendations. However I am very happy with the products and service from Tubemonger. As always, there are other good vendors too. Once you register with Tubemonger you will get regular stock updates.
https://www.tubemonger.com/ECC82_12AU7_E82CC_ECC802S_5814_6189_6680_CV491_CV4003_13D5_s/7.htm
BTW, they tend to come in pairs.
Thanks you , as always your are very informative and helpful. I’ll check them out
Pete’s spot on. There are a number of very good NOS ECC82s/12AU7s you can use in your Riviera. That said, the really good ones, like the Telefunken 802S, are very hard to come by, plus you need to be careful of fakes ones.
My usual source is; https://tubeworldexpress.com - expect to pay a slight premium, but you can be assured of good genuine Tubes.
If you can’t find good NOS tubes, IMHO PSVANE is probably the best current Tube manufacturer around; http://www.psvane.com/?l=en