just some interesting information a member of a recording site i am on and one of the members posted this about the amp:
That's a hybrid amp, the tubes are a preamp stage and the output is transistor. Thus some of the stuff he is saying like:
And yes this is a bit under-rated, but using tubes makes it much louder than a regular amp. I would assume it would sound closer to 200 watts per channel compared to a non-tube amp.
It is commonly stated that tube amps (that is, with a tube power stage) have "louder" watts vs. transistor amps, this is because the tubes will overload more gradually than transistors. So you could be at 0.1% THD with a transistor amp, and 6dB louder will be 20%, whereas the tube might go from 0.1% to 1% in the same transition.
Also, since these are preamp tubes they last much longer than power tubes, so changing them isn't a big imperative.
And this:
it trully does shine! no HPF is used on the amp as frequencies below 87hz are cutoff by the tubes used at a 24db slope when set to High not flat or sub
Tubes aren't HPFs, they can easily have response down to DC. Any HPF would be the circuit design, not the tubes selected.
As for using it with a sub, a power tube output can be accused of having "tubby" lows (which guitarists tend to like), that's a function of several things including the power supply (whether the rectifiers are tube or solid-state), and of course the response of the output transformer.
Preamp tubes again don't have any such issues since their power output is small an they don't have output transformers (I didn't see an interstage transformer in that design). So it should perform like any other similar quality solid-state output.
I doubt you'd find a 2x 160W tube power amp for a car; it would be the equivalent of carrying around two big guitar amp heads in your trunk, each with 6 power tubes and a big honkin' output transformer (bigger than the toroid that is in there), and since their efficiency is typically less than 25% they would tax your car's power system. You'd also need a pretty good-sized inverter/rectifier to generate the 500VDC the power tubes would require . . . maybe a custom job for somebody really crazy . . .
i still want to hear the amp. i have run a tube pre with solid state power at home and liked it. so i still want to check this thing out. i hope it's not a let down.
