Firebox preamps question

[MoonDoggie]

First of all I really have to complement this place. It seems like an awesome community, with a very helpful bunch. I've spent all day yesterday and most of today researching other forums for an answer to my problem, only to come away with nothing except my own assumptions as to what the problem might be. I only spent 3-4 hours here researching old posts, and I feel like I already almost figured out my problem.

Now I just need to figure out if my assumption is correct.

My problem is that I get alot of hiss when I use amplitube vst (or anything really) in conjunction with my guitar connected into my firebox instrument port. I believe this problem stems from the fact that the preamps on the firebox are weak. Because of that I have to crank the gain pretty much to max, to get a decent signal. And at that max point is where the preamps get noisy.

Interface Help

According to this thread, the head honcho suspects that when cranked all the way, the preamps on the firebox shouldn't be noisy. (2nd post)

But that's kinda not holding true for me unfortunately. I'm posting a sound file of what it sounds like when max gain is reached below. The firebox has a maximum preamp gain of 45dB. If someone could inform me on whether or not that much noise at 45dB is normal or not, that would be great!

This is the sound I get when the preamp knob is cranked all the way, with my guitar plugged into the instrument port, and no playing is being done.

Edit: forgot to mention that this sound file is just the dry signal. Nothing vst is loaded. I don't know why I mentioned amplitube. -_-

[garww]

Noise needs to be double checked against some other input. With electronics, A/C line noise and radiated noise can make it into your input chain.

[MoonDoggie]

Thank you for the response. I actually Don't own the firebox anymore. I took advantage of the 14 day return policy, and got a Firestudio Mobile. Problem solved. The preamps on this bastard are crystal clear, even at decently high gain. Am a good deal impressed with this interface.