which hybrid amp?

Hands down, no contest, best bang-for-the-buck is the Audio Van Alstine FET Valve 550EX. Detailed, dynamic, gobs of power, and handles loads down to 2 ohms (are you listening, Apogee owners?). It's non-fatiguing and plays very well with any speaker I've tried it with. Puts amps 2-3 times the price to shame.

Lovin' every minute,
Ed

Blue Circle BC6, BC24, BC28, AG8000

i owned the unico for a couple of monthes. i used it with a pair of nautilus 805s and then a pair of sonus faber concertos. it was a great match for both. it is definitely on the warm side and is very nuetral. close your eyes and you can swear you are listening to an all tube setup. however, it still provided good bass, afterall it still had a solid state output stage. clearly the best of both worlds. if you can afford the bat certainly audition it. if it sounds as good as other bat products it should definitely be a step or two up. at that price it better be.

what i would suggest is try to audition the unico first. if you cannot audition it then just buy it here used. listen to it and if you don't like it sell it back here and you probably won't lose a dime other then maybe a little on shipping. that is what i did. i got one here use for $1100 shipped and sold it for $1100 plus shipping, so i did not lose anything.

if you are wondering why i sold it if i liked it so much, it is because i wanted an all tube integrated instead, bass is not really that important to me because i have a sub.