mixing tube and solid state amps

I passively bi-amp with VTL MB100 tubes on the top and Sunfire Symphonic Reference on the bottom.
These amps are way out of gain match but I controll the gain of the Sunfire with professional ClearBock balanced line converter that I use to decrease the gain of Sunfire to match VTL.
Also VTL is connected to the high-pass(80Hz -3db and after 12dB per octave) output of preamplifier. THe benefit is to limit the "visible" freequency bandwidth to the amplifier thus significantly decreasing distortions that are quite big in tube amps in the bottom end.

Larryrosen,

I was talking to a friend to day about bi-amping using tubes for the mids highs. His first response was make sure that the speed of the tube amp matches the SS amp.

Michael

I would not at all be concerned with the speed of the tube amp "keeping up" with the solid state amp. This is silly! A number of us seek a tube amp because it creates a 3-dimensionality, a harmonic richness and and natural decay of notes that even the best of the solid state amps can not produce. For the most part, such tube amps do very well in all but the bottom 1 to 1 1/2 octaves. If the crossover is used to biamp with a subwoofer, say at 60hz or even 80hz or so, the situation will have more to do with level matching, i.e, not be so eager to turn up the sub's level beyond a natural level. If the crossover is more like the upper bass / lower mids, then the slopes/crossover points are far more critical than the "speed" of the amps. The tonality differences of the amps will be more pronounced. So the thing to do here is focus on getting a tube amp that really puts a smile on your face and then find a solid state amp to match the tonality.....not find a tube amp to match your solid state amp!
John