Tenor Hybrid v. VTL MB-450 Sig.

In one of tenor's ads. they offer in home auditioning. Have you contacted tenor?

If I were you I would put your money towards a more full range set of speakers and forget the amps for now as the VTL will get you down the road in fine style.....What is the nonsense about a restocking fee? You are auditioning a production amplifier, not custom goods........

Brooks, as a previous owner of the Tenor OTL's and a current Tenor 300 watt Hybrid owner to me there is no doubt that as much as loved the Tenor OTL's, the Hybrids do pretty much everything better. and this is on the Kharma Exquisites (an easy load) in a small room (spl's are not excessive).

over the last 2 years i had heard the Tenor OTL's on many different speakers and compared to many different amps.....so as my reference i was very clear on how it stacked up. the Hybrids are not only much better than my personal reference but will work on pretty much any speaker......so if you do go to another speaker that does present a more difficult load the Tenor Hybrids should be fully up to the task.

your dilemma is understandable. due to very limited supply the Hybrids are really not availible for an in-home demo. there are just not many sets of these amps out there yet. the Crumpster isn't wrong.....but you will most likely run into the same issue there.....how can you home demo most really top 'full-range' speakers that would be a big step up over your Merlins?

so you are back to the question of whether the Tenor Hybrids are enough of a 'step-up' over the VTL's to justify the purchase without trying them in your system first.

assuming that the Tenor 150 Stereo amp is on par sonically with the 300 watt mono version (and i understand that they do sound the same), the hybrids do make as much sense as any other similar investment you could make in your system.

additional note; i was very skeptical about the Tenor Hybrids. i expected to prefer my OTL's. even after i heard them in San Francisco at the Stereophile Show last June where they were clearly better......i was skeptical that other issues might have been involved. when i finally got them in my room in August it took about 10 seconds before it was totally clear that these amps were simply in another league compared to anything else.

good luck.

Hello Mike, I'm truly and honestly very happy for you and that to your ears you find the hybrids that much better than the OTL's. Now as strong as you feel the hybrids are better then the OTL's, I feel the exact opposite. In all the aspects that I find most important to me I found the OTL's to be superior. To be honest it wasn't even close to my ears. The one thing that we do agree on is that they do sound different. There for it is possible for people to disagree on which sounds better to them. I would sincerely hate to see somebody spend their hard earned money on my advice or others and be disappointed and lose a significant amount of money on a resale. So please, Brooks or anybody else, find a way to audition the gear in question and let your ears decide. Best wishes to all! Tom

This thread is a great example of how well these forums can work. Every one of you has given me a little different perspective, related experience that would be impractical/near impossible for me to get on my own, and offered me excellent advice. It is very cool that a common interest can get a bunch of kind, intelligent people to help an unknown guy, across the county, make a difficult decision. Here it is: Even though my VTLs are crated in CA. ready to go to a dealer as a trade, I am going to have them shipped to my house. I will fire them up for a few months while I listen to the Merlins with all of the amps suggested - The Hybrid, the OTL, the Joules, and I will listen to the Berning. I still cannot believe that a 10lb shoe box sized amp can be in the same league. With that reputation, I want to hear it. Then, if I choose the hybrid (assuming a weaker dollar), I will just have to suck up the price increase. Such is the opportunity cost of a molases moving audiophile. However, when the decision is made, I will definately know which amp is the right one and not be thinking about what the other ones might have been like. This really minimizes the risk of another sale at a loss. Thank you all for your help.