A straw poll on valve hybrid equipment

I'm curious as to what proportion of audiophiles would reject hybrid designs due to either regarding them as "ruining a valve unit by adding sand/cursed transistors" or even the somewhat opposite view that "it can't be any good in bass tightness and "PRaT" 'cos its got valves in it".... or indeed any other relevant POV's on the matter that may not have occurred to me!

My own definition of hybrid, in this context, differs somewhat from the general norm in that I define it as equipment in which both valves and solid state (SS) are used together in a circuit as parts of the overall topology and NOT as eg a valve line stage followed by a SS power amp all in one box to produce a "hybrid" integrated, but that's by the by for now.

 

It seems I've discovered the least controversial topic in hi fi....

I guess if no one even has an opinion on the matter then that's one thing less to worry about

 

Regardless of whether it has valves in it or not, it's the technical performance that would get me interested, or not. If it has valves, there must be a technical benefit, or it's pointless.

The exception is valve power amps that I use in a second system, just because of the looks.

S

 

With all due respect Serge... you're hardly the typical hi fi punter (nor I!). Unfortunately the typical punter knows very little about electronics and will often make a choice which seems to be swayed by mainly "peer pressure/what's in fashion/what that bloke from Sterophile say's".... plus maybe divination by tea leaves... or the intestines of a goat by the light of a full moon or something.... allegedly

I have little doubt that a fair few will reject a hybrid simply because it contains transistors as well as valves... OR because it contains valves as well as transistors... and without any technical reasoning on the matter.

The prevalence (or not) of such beliefs is what I was trying to get a handle on.

 

What would the valves do according to your definition of hybrid? Does valve rectification of solid state power give any benefit for example? Solid state rectification of valve power is obviously more common and some say it has its advantages.

I think the later Croft power amps are a "true" hybrid amplifier having a valve input stage rather than a simple buffer (if that makes sense).

A valve output stage in a DAC is another example of a hybrid component but that's similar to having a valve pre amp with solid state power (although loosely in reverse). I've seen some DACs with valves in the digital stage which I've never quite got my head round.

 

Generally valves would be used as voltage amplifiers, which is what they do best. There are no advantages to valve rectification or regulation other than the usefulness of a slow start which can be needed in a few situations. Valve rectification for solid state power amp would be virtually impossible anyway. Indeed there are "true" hybrid power amps from Croft.

 

I would approach this question from a different angle:

Imagine that we have 3 amplifiers; One is solid state, one is valve, and one is hybrid.
Since we are imagining, let's imagine that all 3 are "perfect", with zero noise, zero distortion, perfectly flat frequency response across the entire audio range, all the power we can use, unconditionally stable. By every metric, they are all "ideal".

Given the same audio source and the same speakers, they will of course all sound exactly the same, because they are all perfect - what comes out is exactly the same as what goes in except "bigger" (amplified).

Now of course, no amplifier is really "perfect", so when we compare amplifiers, the thing that we are really comparing is their imperfections.

The question now has 2 parts:
1. Can I afford an amplifier that is good enough that its imperfections are truly insignificant?
2. If the imperfections are not insignificant, which kind of imperfections do I prefer?