Hybrid Tube Integrated Amp

[Illuminatti]

Lately, ive been into serious audio listening and tube amps have caught my attention. I like the way tube amp sounds but the price is quite prohibitive and the wattage is quite low. (which somewhat limits my speaker choices)

I heard about hybrid tube amps which is a combination of MOSFET circuitry and tube preamp. It offers a hefty 100 watts per channel(2) and tube preamp composed of mostly EL34.

My question is, Will i be able to achieve the sound that ive been craving for with this integrated amp?

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Btw, im considering Jolida hybrid Amp.

 

[cornelius]

I love the sound of tube/pre, SS/power combos. Have you checked out responseaudio.com ?

They have all of the Jolidas which are great, and they also do mods. Just talk to them, and I'm sure they'll help.

 

[dsa220]

I heard about hybrid tube amps which is a combination of MOSFET circuitry and tube preamp. It offers a hefty 100 watts per channel(2) and tube preamp composed of mostly EL34.

I have not heard of EL-34's used in a pre-amp section as they are output tubes (pentodes, but can be wired as triodes).

There has been a resurgence in the area of integrated amplifiers in the last few years, with hybrids being the most intriguing portion. They normally use either 6DJ8's or 12AX7 (or deviations of them) in the pre-amp stage and SS devices in the outputs. I have been looking at one for a small system in my bedroom.

Some power amps use SS inputs (usually J-Fet's) and tubes on the outputs. Hovland is one such company using this method.

In the 2-channel portion of my system I am currently using a pure tube pre-amp (extremely modified Counterpoint SA-1) with a solid-state amp (modified Bedini 50/50DE) driving modified B&W 330i's augmented by a REL Strata II sub. One thing most people can not get over with this configuration is how chameleon like it can be, with album after album sounding different from one another, and sometimes song to song on the same album (Eric Clapton’s SLOWHAND is a great example of this). Cornelius, have you noticed the same thing on your system?

Most people do not believe that there are tubes in my system. I usually have to open my pre-amp and show the 5 glowing bottles inside.

 

[cornelius]

Actually my system is all solid state McIntosh right now, but I have heard tube/SS combos, and found the same versatility that you did.

 

[JoeE SP9]

I use an ARC-SP9 in conjunction with tube power amps driving ES panels and SS for my subs. When I've had enough Chimay I frequently think I'm in heaven. IMHO the earlier in the amplification chain the tubes are the better.

 

[av_phile]

Hybrid integrated amps seem to provide the compromise between tube sound and the hefty power of solid states. So I would go for one if you can afford it and that's where your ears are egging you to go.