Hybrid Integrated Amps

Verdantaudio 

I appreciate your response since I was curious what others have experienced with hybrids. As you stated the hybrids get close but no cigar which is what I would have expected. A couple of dealers I spoke to concur with your findings. It comes down to what sounds best to me overall with all types of genre and recordings.
The biggest difference was replacing all 5 preamp tubes with NOS tubes I purchased from Vintage Tubes. I also didn’t care for the stock KT120s so I ordered my Rogue with KT77s instead. That’s what I like most about tubes is the ability to tune it to my liking.

I tried a hybrid. But the minute you lift the darn thing goes into regen and the rocking back and forth was killing me. Apparently only Porsche has figured out that when we lift we want to coast, not brake. We brake when we want to brake. Duh.

What I recommend, the way out of this trap, forget how it’s done. Focus on how it drives. However it’s done. How it drives, not whether it uses gas or batteries. These stories are fun but ultimately irrelevant. In the end, all that matters is how it drives. So let them chatter all they want about why.

Unless that is what you really care about, the chatter. I care about the music, so I disregard the chatter. If you care about the chatter then by all means hang around. Here it comes!

Oops! Too late! Beat me to it! Oh well, here comes some more!!!

A big part of this is what tubes you are running in the input stage of the amp.  I have been doing a test with a hybrid integrated from Canor and have swapped in three current production tubes vs. NOS pairs. NOS tubes make a HUGE difference.  

In the end, a hybrid will never sound quite as good as a tube amp or integrated but they are capable of being much better their SS or Class D only brethren.  

I have had five different hybrid amps in here in the past few months (Two Rogues, a Canor and two AVMs) where I have spent significant time with them.  Four were Class D and one is a Class AB. All of them sound very good and in some cases sound very close to my Art Audio KT88 based monos as a benchmark. 

It is just essential that they are given adequate burn in time as tubes really need 30-50 hours to sound right at minimum and we have to accept that a $17 pair of Russian re-issues may not deliver end-game sound quality.  You are probably going to need to go out and spend a little on decent tubes.