Intricate,
Glad you got it sounding good. As I read these posts, I remember reading a study on pyscho-acoustics that found that when there is slight residual background hiss present on music recordings, like the kind you described or with tape or vinyl, many listeners actually "hear" more high-frequency content or detail. It's a strange phenomenon.
Or maybe it's just older audiophiles who grew up hearing music with background hiss present--it was a given for years in all recordings and of course vinyl too--so that when they hear the identical music with no hiss in the background, they describe it as "lacking detail."
I once suggested this to one of my regular record reviewers in Canada who had an enormous collection of vinyl that he always described as having more detail than CDs, and he became quite angry. . .
Regards,
