Tube + SS bi-amping B&W 803 D3s?


In the constant quest for incremental gains and chasing the high from first hearing these speakers at the dealer, I have been considering bi-amping my B&W 803 D3s with a tube amp for HF and using my current Parasound A21+ for LF. Anyone have experience with this type of setup or recommendations for tube amps that may be particularly worth looking at?

FWIW, I tend towards warmer sound. The speakers are crystal clear but the Parasound tends towards brighter sound with them. The addition of the C2500 and the SVS subs has definitely helped, but I get the sense there is still some performance left to find.

 

Current setup:

NAD C658 Streaming DAC

Pro-Ject Carbon Debut TT with Sumiko Wellfleet cartridge

McIntosh C2500 Pre-amp

B&W 803 D3 Floorstanding Speakers

SVS SB-3000 subs x2

andrewmland

Showing 1 response by eurorack

My own impression is to agree with 052rc's writing: "Mixing amps like what you're talking about almost never sounds right."

Here, there are some listeners who have found happiness with solid state, others who prefer tubes, and others who hop the fence from time to time. I would think that most here would agree that tube power amplification and SS power amplification are fundamentally different in character -- even those amplifiers at the highest price point and/or the highest performance point.

They are different; highs, lows, mids, sub-bass, impedance, phase, authority, slam, smoothness, stage, imaging, presence, air, on and on.

Bi-amped, approaching crossover frequency, one will hear two amplifiers contributing, more or less, the same amount of sonic energy. If the two sources of that energy are inherently different, then the result near crossover will be perhaps a strange amalgam. 

I'd wager some readers have found likeable combinations, but none without much consideration and many experiments. The probability of "picking" one SS amp, one tube amp, and one speaker, and getting close to excellent sound seems quite small.

YMMV; please do report back in detail. 

Cheers.