IanB52, how are you measuring the hiss?. I can get 70db of hiss when 1" away from my tweeter. It is audible at the listening position, but, as I say, when the speakers are producing 110db or so average (I sit 4.5m away so average around 94db at the listening position) it really isn’t noticeable.
You have to be exactly 1m away from sound source to get any meaningful dB value
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Exactly, you’d probably need to be in an anechoic chamber to get down to 20db given the environmental background noise (when I said my speakers are producing 110db I meant at 1 metre working back from 94db at the listening position).
I don’t use speakers anymore as I moved into a smaller place. From memory what I can tell you is that the level of hiss is in the ballpark of what you encounter with 2" 24 track analog tape and does eat into musical information. To get sufficiently above the noise floor requires very high volumes that cause hearing damage.
My speakers are 91db efficient, and so I can actually hear some small amount of his with the BHK Pre in the signal path at about 15ft. Without any kind of attenuation the level of hiss is not subtle at all. It is loud, and that is why the 20 db pad exists.
It’s hard to believe that a modern set up producing audible hiss at 15ft doesn’t have a component that is not functioning correctly. I would be very unhappy if I could hear hiss at my listening position. If you know which component it is, tech support, warranty work, or replacement seems appropriate.
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I said it is the Direcstream DAC. It’s not a mystery, it has a very high noise floor that makes it untenable at volumes under 50 (loud in my room) without a preamp or the 20db pad. As I said, that is WHY the pad exists. Why do you think Ted put a -20db attenuator in there? There is nothing wrong with my DAC, and you can easily search this forum for threads about the DSS noise floor.
I don’t have the DS DAC and don’t even have that good a grasp on what an attenuator does in that application, I just know that if my system made an audible noise at 15 ft I would change it. No offense to you or Ted or PSA (who made my SGCD) is intended.
Everyone has the right to unreasonably set up their audio equipment.
My DS DAC has a 20 dB attenuator on and I usually listen with the volume set to 80 - 90.
The sound is excellent and the noise from my Scan Speak beryllium speaker can be heard only when the ear is closer than 10 cm.
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Which sounds perfectly reasonable to me
“In my room, listening at 80db you get 20db of hiss.”
Then there is something wrong in your setup , such as a poorly-chosen match between amp/preamp/speakers, which does not allow you to use the DAC at its best gain levels, or possibly a defect in the DAC.
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I used to hear some low level hiss with Snowmass, but no longer with Windom.
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I’m curious. What’s the rest of your setup? I have no hiss - but I don’t have real efficient speakers either. But I can put my ear right against the ribbon and dead silent. I like that. 
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I do not understand? Perhaps my age/hearing loss? The DSS goes into my ML dual mono preamp then to the ML Monobloks. The pad is off. I am using the SF Ex3ma and a MJ Windsor sub. I can turn the vol all the way at idle on the pre and nothing. The DSS is on 100. There is no background noise in here whatsoever. Before you say I am lucky, My DSS screen never did work.
PS Audio Direcstream DAC-> PS Audio BHK Signature Preamp->PS Audio BHK 250 amplifier-> Focal Aria 936 speakers. What about this setup screams “poorly chosen”?
In the scenario I am describing, the preamp is bypassed and the DAC goes straight into the amp. Think about what happens when you have a DAC with noise at -95db, and you have it playing in your room around 80-85db output volume, but the DAC is set to 35 out of 100. How much of that 80db is going to contain audible noise?
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You are doing it right. The situation I’m talking about is where you would connect the DSS directly to the monoblocks and set the DSS volume in the 30-40 range.
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Gee, I don’t hear any noise from my Directstream - perhaps it’s my ears. But my wife who has the ears of a bat say that she doesn’t hear anything either.
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You haven’t seen unreasonable until you’ve seen my ClusterFxxk of a setup. My (let’s call it imaginary Tube hiss for now) high noise floor is created by the true balanced miniDSP 2x4 48/24 EQ that’s necessary for my 901’s. The hiss is very noticeable ear to the front Speaker and extremely audible on the back 8. Fortunately, my Speakers are place far away from any side walls and 22" from the Wall behind them. They are more omni-directional than they are “Direct/Reflecting” so you can’t hear the hiss from the listening position at all. I’ve also heard/read theories that a bit of hiss mixed with the source material can actually be a good thing. 
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This thread has Info from Ted discussing it. Might need to search around a little.