Rusty Messages: 1153 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
I'd say, no and no. Great designs can be had with or without the hybrid approach. Which I think is to make something with the trait's of one format, say, tube impressed upon a solid state design. Reliability is part of any honest designer's forethought. With that foundation, the devil in the details can be expressed with creativity. Van Alstine is suppose to have fine hybrid amplifiers. Don't know if they can be said to be superior in sound and reliability to many other non-hybrid designs though. But I bet they have their follower's that would swear by them.