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

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. 

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.

@emergingsoul A pair of McIntosh MC451 would be my dream for it but is a little pricier than I want to go. I’m sure your system sounds absolutely amazing though!

@052rc ​​@eurorack — Thank you both for the well-reasoned feedback. It’s a consideration but would be a very tough pill to swallow. Plus I love my turbine heads!