"Arny Krueger" said:

First tell me why unmasked noise from the front (tubes, vinyl) is
somehow better.

Because it's not noticeable at the listening position.

Sorry to hear about your hearing disability. Sander.

My valve power amps have inaudible hiss and hum even if you put your
head right next to a 989.

My hybrids have 80 dB S/N at 20Veff out (1 x E288CC in SRPP, 2 x
SJ50/2 x SK135 per channel).
My tube amps have 74 dB S/N at 12 Veff/4 ohms (2 x 6SN7 floating
paraphase + driver stage, 2 x KT88 in triode per channel).
That is with the preamp in place, gain fully open (1 x ECC82 CCS, no
cathode bypass).
Phono preamp has about 62 dB S/N (2 x CV4004/ECC83, passive RIAA
inbetween), mostly pink noise, so not annoying.
In all cases without phono, noise and/or hum isn't noticeable with the
ears in the speakers.
With the phono stage in place, noise and/or hum isn't noticeable at
the listening position, and some noise is audible with my ears in the
speakers.
Hum is below 80 dB (can't measure better than that at this moment).

Devil, next time try that with a power amp with more than 5 wpc, and oh by
the way turn it on BEFORE not after the listening test. Since you admit to
using "snake oil capacitors" it is therefore a proven fact that you also use
snake oil electrical power.

A KT88 push pull in triode will deliver more than 5 watts.
The average wattage (voltage, actually) in an average room at average
listening volumes ( 75...80 dB SPL) will be mostly in the 1...5 watt
range with average sensitive speakers (88 dB/w/m).

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."