I am looking to buy a hybrid Tube headphone amplifier but don't know what to buy!!!

[Robin L]

Because it sounds smoother ?

I've never heard anything smoother than the Topping L30 hooked up to Drop 6XX 'phones. Nada.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

1)The Monoprice Liquid Platinum ONLY BALANCED. The SE rca's are not that great (Amir reviewed it a few years back, but no xlr in/xlr out. I would also recommend using it with only a 200-600ohm headphone due to the volume knob. Catch it on sale for $400-$500.

2) Rebel Amp. Its not a tube, but VERY warm, and has the smooth treble roll off, and 2nd harmonic that is typically deemed "tube-ish". Its big and green though, but excellent. $500

The Flux Fa-10/12 etc have similar smooth, warm sounds too, but are $750. They are cleaner and the response is more linear than the Rebel.

3) If you want to spend more money, maybe an Auris or Feliks. Both are wonderful sounding tube amp and have somewhat less noisy playback.

4) Cheaper, maybe a dark voice, or a xduoo TA-20 but they can be noisy, with lower impedance headphones.

 

[LegionOfHell]

how does Bellari HA540 MK2 compare to the CTH ?

 

[Count Arthur]

I was always intrigued by the Garage1217 amps: http://www.garage1217.com/index.html; looks like it might be fun to build and I've never really tried a valve amp.

As I understand it, they are designed to allow you to mess about trying different tubes. However, in terms of performance, objectively at least, its going to be beaten by by a good number of the amps available now from Topping, JDS Labs, Schitt, etc., at a lower price.

 

[frogmeat69]

The Loxjie P20 seems alright for $100 and has balanced inputs and out, not sure if it's any better than your Little Dot, though.

 

[Skeptischism]

Honestly I think you are better served running solid state amp and a tube pre, or even a tube pre or tube compressor plugin. there are many mathematically modelled tube plugins that model, or with DSP, emulate high end studio gear with impulse responses.

Tube amps just dont perform that well objectively. even the best ones will misbehave in some small way; its part of their character. Mostly its not even tubes making the sound many associate with them, its the signal transformers (input, interstage, output, all 3 ... ), so if you can just emulate the sound of that misbehavior, without the actual misbehavior, that seems like a better idea to me

 

[hmscott]

I already own a Little Dot I+... but I want to sell it and get something else..

I am looking to buy a hybrid Tube headphone amp … my budget is $200 USD …

I have already considered the Alex Cavalli Tube Hybrid , but it gets a bad review here at audiosciencereview...

Are there any other good hybrid tube amps in this price range ?

Xduoo have several Hybrid Tube amps, some recently released in the lower price range:
xDuoo MT604 Balanced Headphone Tube Amplifier - xDuoo official store
xDuoo MT-602 Tube Headphone Amp - xDuoo official store

And, Xduoo has a 10% discount on all of their products through August 27 (tomorrow), also 10% off on Amazon:
Tube Headphone Amplifier - xDuoo official store
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...hread-on-audio-product-sales.3118/post-888931

I haven't heard the newer low priced Xduoo Tube Hybrid products, but I have enjoyed my Xduoo TA-20 Hybrid Tube/SS 2W Balanced XLR Input and Headphone XLR Balanced Output headphone AMP, which I've had since December 2020:
xDuoo TA-20 Balanced Tube Amp-xDuoo Official Store

The TA-20 drives my Hifiman Planars and Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic headphones as well as my IEM's more enjoyably to me than my Topping A90 (#3) or my FiiO M15 (#2):
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-headphone-amplifier-review.10118/post-275457

Over the last year, I've found listening with new issue tubes and NOS tubes measuring 100%+ provide the best sound - no HISS or microphonics. The stock Shuguang 12AU7's are "ok" for testing the TA-20 to make sure it is functioning ok, but I was happy that I had ordered new issue 12AU7 tube pairs to arrive with my TA-20 to switch to right away:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-headphone-amplifier-review.10118/post-613396
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-headphone-amplifier-review.10118/post-612156
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-headphone-amplifier-review.10118/post-619887
...and a number of other posts in that thread...

After listening to a number of 12AU7 new/NOS tubes I asked Xduoo if the TA-20 would support 12AT7 and 12AX7 tubes, and Xduoo confirmed the TA-20 supports those tubes. After trying a couple 12AT7 and 12AX7 tubes, I found I prefer listening to 12AT7 and equivalent variants in the TA-20.

I hope you enjoy your new Hybrid Tube/SS headphone AMP, and I look forward to your future posts about it.

 

[Wonder]

why don't you have a look at fosi audio T20 [https://fosiaudio.com/products/t20-...ply-by-fosi-audio?_pos=1&_sid=b1e05d9fc&_ss=r], the sound is great

 

[hmscott]

why don't you have a look at fosi audio T20 [https://fosiaudio.com/products/t20-...ply-by-fosi-audio?_pos=1&_sid=b1e05d9fc&_ss=r], the sound is great

The OP is looking for a Hybrid Tube Headphone Amplifier -> Tube Preamplifier + SS output - the SS output gives support for a much wider range of headphones impedances - from low ohm IEM's to 600 ohm over the ear headphones - like the Xduoo TA-20 design.

This Fossi Audio T20 design has a limited range of impedance support for headphones:

• Headphones Output: 16-64Ohm

xDuoo TA-20 Balanced Tube Amp-xDuoo Official Store

• Headphone impedance: 8–600 ohms

 

[TimoLux]

I think you can look at the T20, it adopts 2 x 6J4 tubes to get clear audio sound with a headphone output for 16-64 ohm headphones;

Power amp + Headphone amp perfectly combination, T20: https://fosiaudio.com/collections/d...-channel-class-d-digital-mini-hi-fi-power-amp