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

Best of both worlds if you can dial it in.  Tube rolling will likely become part of the fine tuning once your tube amps are in, but that's one of the benefits of having tubes.  You'll need the ability to adjust gain on both sets of amps.  

I'm running Dyna/VTA monoblocks from ~ 60hz up, and use a silver mica caps as an inline high pass filter so that the amps don't have to produce the bottom octaves.  

Good luck!


 

Well, what you’re hearing are the inherent sound characteristics of your speakers.  If you prefer a warmer sound these really aren’t the speakers that would cater to your preferences and that you are now having to jump through hoops to fix with upstream components.  And BTW your current amp and pre already lean to the warm side, which just shows you’re already fighting an uphill battle.  So can you possibly improve the sound more to your liking with a tube amp?  Sure, but that may come with other issues (and expense) so the question becomes should you?  Basically you’re swimming against the current here, and another way to go would be to sell the 803s and buy speakers that actually produce the type of sound you prefer rather than having to work around the speakers with expensive fixes.  I would point you toward something like Sonus Faber, QLN, ProaAc, or Joseph Audio speakers among others that would likely sound great with your current amp.  Sorry to be a bit of a shot of cold water here but just wanted to give you another potential option and way to look at this.  Best of luck.

I appreciate the input. I have thought of it, but when I first heard the speakers at the dealer it was the absolute perfect blend of warmth and brightness, and I haven’t ever fully realized that at home. Unfortunately I don’t remember the specific equipment they were using but I do believe they were being powered by McIntosh tubes, thus my exploring this path. Ultimately, probably would have been cheaper to buy a McIntosh amp up front rather than the Parasound and then maybe something else, but that ship has sailed. 

i use a pair of McIntosh MC 901 mono amplifiers which is a biamping creation and it seems to work really well with the built-in crossover stuff. Doing all this externally is a royal pain in the ass.  Difficult to blend things very well with four separate monos and requires lots of interconnects.  

I like the idea of tubes and maybe with the 803s you may be better served with A pair of 300 W tube monos, maybe CJ, or stereo amplifier with tubes and just leave it at that, ie no biamping.  I haven’t tried using just the tube side of the 901s to power the entire speaker without the solid state and maybe I should but I’m lazy I guess but not sure it would be all that meaningful at this point.  I have 802 D3s and they’re doing a lot better with tons of power which I now have.

I like the Sonus speaker recommendation.  Speaker cables were very helpful to tone down brightness of 802s.  If you use a processor for Home theater DSP is very helpful. 

Mixing amps like what you're talking about almost never sounds right. If you're able to try a tube amp without committing to a purchase, then do it. You'll probably need a crossover to get the levels right. I say fix the problem directly. If you really love the speakers and know you want to keep them for a long time, it would make more sense to get a more forgiving power amp and speaker cables. That said, more audiophiles have gone broke trying to get B&W's sounding right more than any other speaker. That's why most of us had B&W's and not have them. The midrange on your speakers is great. Fast, clean, articulate, etc.. It just draws you into the music. The highs are always a problem. Also, I wouldn't go by your memory of how they sounded when you first heard them at a dealer. Now that you've had the speakers for a while and know how they sound, hearing the original setup again may sound completely different.