Tube + SS bi-amping B&W 803 D3s?

You should try it. Especially with those speakers which are known to be power hungry and on the bright side. I bi-amped for the first time 48 years ago and still have a tri-amped main system. Others on this site will gladly help you to do it correctly. My suggestion would be to eventually bypass all of the internal crossover parts. Good luck on your journey!

Best of both worlds if you can dial it in.  Tube rolling will likely become part of the fine tuning once your tube amps are in, but that's one of the benefits of having tubes.  You'll need the ability to adjust gain on both sets of amps.  

I'm running Dyna/VTA monoblocks from ~ 60hz up, and use a silver mica caps as an inline high pass filter so that the amps don't have to produce the bottom octaves.  

Good luck!


 

Well, what you’re hearing are the inherent sound characteristics of your speakers.  If you prefer a warmer sound these really aren’t the speakers that would cater to your preferences and that you are now having to jump through hoops to fix with upstream components.  And BTW your current amp and pre already lean to the warm side, which just shows you’re already fighting an uphill battle.  So can you possibly improve the sound more to your liking with a tube amp?  Sure, but that may come with other issues (and expense) so the question becomes should you?  Basically you’re swimming against the current here, and another way to go would be to sell the 803s and buy speakers that actually produce the type of sound you prefer rather than having to work around the speakers with expensive fixes.  I would point you toward something like Sonus Faber, QLN, ProaAc, or Joseph Audio speakers among others that would likely sound great with your current amp.  Sorry to be a bit of a shot of cold water here but just wanted to give you another potential option and way to look at this.  Best of luck.

I appreciate the input. I have thought of it, but when I first heard the speakers at the dealer it was the absolute perfect blend of warmth and brightness, and I haven’t ever fully realized that at home. Unfortunately I don’t remember the specific equipment they were using but I do believe they were being powered by McIntosh tubes, thus my exploring this path. Ultimately, probably would have been cheaper to buy a McIntosh amp up front rather than the Parasound and then maybe something else, but that ship has sailed.