Quote Originally Posted by eksiil View Post
for what it's worth, I don't think I've ever had a Croft amp hiss (unless there was a faulty valve somewhere). they are remarkably quiet, even compared to SS designs (which can hum). I've had limited usable volume knob travel in some combinations, but even with modern DACs I can usually comfortably get to the 3 o'clock notch. & in my experience that was never correlated to any form of hiss. so my vote goes to the people saying there must be a fault in the signal path.
Could it be a dodgy valve? I used a Croft pre-amp for several years and it had no hiss or hum. No amplifier should exhibit hiss or hum whether it is valve or solid state. if it does it is either faulty or rubbish.