Hybrid vs. Straight Tubes

I think the real 'sound' of tubes is found in the amp output not in a couple of tube drivers in front of a SS output. I also think that the difference between a 40wt tube amp and a 100 wt ss amp is relatively nominal. Don't forget that this difference amounts to something like 4dbs, not much. So if an all tube integrated floats your boat go for it.

BTW, FWIW, a few years ago I bought a Primaluna One which has a passive line stage and uses EL34's. I liked its tone (color if you will) but it was relatively slow and thick so I wrote it off to the attic. Not long ago I got it out and tried connecting it to a tubed pre-amp using one of its regular inputs and using its VC to control the gain from the pre-amp (much the same as you would with a lot of amps which have gain controls). I was amazed! The tone was similar but the speed and resolution was greatly improved. So, something for consideration, were I to buy another integrated would be whether or not the gain stage in the integrated were active or passive. In most integrateds (including the two that I have) it is passive and clearly now I would opt for having an active pre-amp section.

You will not hear real tube sound from a hybrid.This is my opinion,others will probably disagree and that's fine by me.

The really expensive part of a tube amp is the output stage, if you use tubes in driver stage and mosfet output stage you can get a lot of the tube sound. I used an amp like this at one time and it worked well.

If yoo really want to find out why tubes have a very dedicate bunch of fanatics. To hear what makes a tube amp really magical, it is imperative that you have an all tube power output stage . Not a shadow of doubt period about it.