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Monoprice hybrid tube amp


The Dude

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I have read a couple of post on these tube amps from Monoprice.  Nothing solid for a review (unless I missed it), so I decided to take the plunge on one of their hybrids. 

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=16153&gclid=CjwKCAjw7tfVBRB0EiwAiSYGM54jdqFXmu4Q_cvoHynxz7LMU1EGwBc0i1MRs9QcI-b_ya6dKr0dqBoCuZMQAvD_BwE

 

Since this is going in the craft room, I wasn't to concerned on the quality.  Mainly I liked the ease of use and the Bluetooth feature, which will allow my wife to get more use out of the Heresies in the that room.  When I finally get a new stylus for my Thorens turn table, I will be running that through a phono preamp that built from a Tubes4hifi kit. 

 

I just received it last night and only spent a little time with it.   Not to bad for $169.00, but nothing I would sell your Scott for.  I once had a Scott in this system, kind of wish I had it now.  I used to think that one could run a hybrid setup such as this and have some what of the warmth that a solid tube amp could offer.  I was clearly wrong.  They offer a complete tube integrated with a phono section, which I still would mind trying. 

 

I wouldn't mind trying some different tubes to see if it makes much difference, but some research would be needed to find compliant tubes.

 

Bottom line, if you are looking for something for that system that doesn't get used, this would be a good piece for the price.  Next I wouldn't mind finding a complete ss piece that is comparable in price if not cheaper. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The hybirds can sound good, clean and be a nice addition to a system.  I have one, Yaquin VK2100, for years and the sound from a tube amp or integrate tube amp will be different.  Hybirds are limited in the preamp tube selection and the power output is of a SS nature.

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  • 2 years later...
I tried the same one a few years back and it blew one channel the instant I turned it on, returned it the next day.  Never even had a chance to hear it once.   Hopefully your luck is better and I just had a faulty amp.
Funny, I went to turn this on several months ago and nothing. Main fuse was blown, replaced it and it instantly blew. After sitting for several months, I figured I would dive into it and see what was wrong. Luckily the diodes and bridge rectifiers were easy to test. I ended up finding one small bridge rectifier allowing complete voltage through. So I ordered 100 off of Amazon for $7.00, received the next day and is now back up and running.

This is going to move into my office to run my Heresies, eventually adding a vinyl setup to it.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

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My instant reflex on the hybrids (when I first saw them) was "gimmick".  Cheap SS amp with a couple of tubes in the pre so they could claim it was a "tube" amp reminds me of how starved-plate "tube" circuits hit the market in the pro audio circuit back in the mid-aughts, claiming to offer "tube" sound at an affordable price, when all they were offering was the hairy distortion part (of an overdriven tube) without any of the clean detail of a properly (not over) driven tube.  Marketing scam, especially at that price point.

 

FWIW, though, I looked at that unit (and a few others in the sub-$300 range) before I finally decided to post here and have a real discussion about tubes in the sub-$1k range and what I could reasonably expect from them. 

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The “gimmick” of the equation is most likely the $169 price as there are numerous high end hybrid integrateds in the market. Many folks swear by tube preamp/SS power separates, I suppose the true hybrid system. Several brands are branching into Class D hybrid - tube preamp section followed with an ICE or Hypex power section. 

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1 hour ago, richieb said:

The “gimmick” of the equation is most likely the $169 price as there are numerous high end hybrid integrateds in the market. Many folks swear by tube preamp/SS power separates, I suppose the true hybrid system. Several brands are branching into Class D hybrid - tube preamp section followed with an ICE or Hypex power section. 

 

Well, that was the sell point of the starved-plate systems - extremely low price point compared to their properly powered high-end peers. 

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15 hours ago, CWOReilly said:

I returned 2 of them. Too much hummmmmmmmmm. 

If I had that happen when I first purchased, I would have as well.  But this far into it, I would dissect it (as I did to get it working again) and try to figure out the issue. 

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36 minutes ago, The Dude said:

If I had that happen when I first purchased, I would have as well.  But this far into it, I would dissect it (as I did to get it working again) and try to figure out the issue. 

 

I haven't aquired the right skills for that yet. Second one was actually worse than the first.

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