It's a hissy preamp I think (too many gainstages perhaps?), you can minimize the noise by playing with the channel and master volumes (easy on the first and crank the latter), the added bonus being the resonance and presence controls get more pronounced but if you hit it wide open the od channels do have a serious amount of hiss. A Decimator G string 4 cable is kinda necessary for serious studio use IMHO.
Glad to see Lasse like it. OD2 Red and OD1 orange are my particular choices, along with clean red and green. The more I play it the more I can hear it's "signature thing" and the crunch channel while having a different feel, just sounds like a less saturated od1. The clean channel is very nice since the tonestack is behind the preamp, fender style, gives the whole thing a different dimension. I've never seen such wildly opposing opinions about an amp like this one, but I really can't see a reason why people hate it so much. It sure isn't a typical Marshall, which, in my opinion (barring the 2203) is largely a good thing (I never liked the JCM 2000s)