I am thinking of buying a hybrid amp down the road and would love your thoughts on some good Amps! I have Eminent 8B speakers at 84db so I need about 150 watts. Thank You in Advance. Don.
Any particular class or type of hybrid you are considering. The one I see quite often are tubes in the preamp section of an integrated amp. But people are using class A input sections of class D output amps. There are many different ways to hybridize anp and its seems many get made My personal evolution in this hobby culminated when I decided to use mono bloc tube amps. I don't think much of these tube pre amp SS power amps. My earnest advice is to ignore the hype and mystery of putting a tube somewhere in the circuit and you get tube sound. Save time money and disappointment and buy eith a tube amp or a good transistor amp (as Ralph calls SS.)
IMHO, hybrids with tube input and SS output sections are SS amps. A good one will be an excellent SS amp. Amps with this topography have never IME sounded like tube amps, probably because they don't interact with the loudspeaker the way a tube amp does. That's just speculation, but I've heard a TON of hybrids over the years and - while several sounded quite good - not one has sounded notably tube like.
I had a Butler Audio TDB-5150 5-channel, 150 watts/ch., tube/MOSFET power amp that was really great. Lots of power, MOSFET "balls" mated to tube sweetness. They can be found here once in a while for good prices.
They also make a TDB-2250 2-channel, 250 watts/ch. power amp that is very nice...
I have owned a couple of Moscode 300s over the years, and were sorry both times after I sold them. As stock units they were very good amps and they are reasonably pricedon the used market, if not the ultimate in build quality. George Kaye upgrades them, quite reasonably as I understand, and the improved amps sound even better.
The Jolida 1501P hybid power amp,100w@8ohms- 200@4, is a good sounding amp,midrange harmonics are sweet, makes an excellent amp for Classical Music and is cheap.
Check out the Vincent hybrids. I auditioned one of their integrated hybrids in the past year or so and was quite impressed. I believe the power rating was 150w. Good reviews too. Cheers!
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