Re hiss: Some of you are talking about horns. If these are horns like Klipsch's, with say 98db sensitivity, you will be "magnifying" his on the order of 8 to 10 db, compared to typical direct radiator speakers. I have owned many types of speakers one being the Klipsch Cornwall about 15 years ago. These puppies were 98db efficient and hissed like a rattler, it didn't matter the source. I was using a tube preamp at the time, and got rid of it in favor of a solid state. I explained to the maker (Frank van Alstine) about the problem and he said he would lower the output of the pre-amp. Voila, the hiss was gone as the preamp matched my amps better with high sensitivity speakers. I think that's what's at play here. High sensitivity speakers are going to show much more hiss using any types of equipment compared to low sensitivity designs. The point made re the muting circuits of other pre/pros is also valid. No signal and mute kicks in. Not sure why Outlaw didn't follow this method, but methinks that if they had, there'd be lots fewer posts in this thread.