Italiensk på sitt beste.

Pathos lager i hovedsak hybridprodukter som bruker rør på preamp/inngangsdelen og transistor på utgangen.

De er en av få produsenter som virkelig får dette til, og har også patent på en krets som heter InPol og som brukes i de mest påkostede produktene som låter helt spesielt.

Tubes or transistors? If pressed, I’m sure many audiophiles will probably tell you they prefer one to the other. Not me: I’ve owned and enjoyed more than few amps of each type -- everything from flea-watt SETs to huge, megawatt space heaters -- and everything in between. As long as the amp makes good music, I’m all ears.

It would be natural, then, to assume that a hybrid amplifier could strike my fancy as much as any other type. But while most hybrids have sounded OK to me, I never came across one that could deliver the musical goods: The hybrid amps I tried tended to combine the typical shortcomings of tubes and transistors, not their advantages. Missing would be many of the promised benefits, including beguiling liquidity and effortless slam; in their place would be flabby bass and cold, analytical sound, usually along with a host of other nonmusical traits. I never found a hybrid I could enjoy in the long term.

Apparently, hybrid amps aren’t a long-term prospect in the marketplace, either. Many have come and gone, but few have endured as well as their all-tubed, all-solid-state brethren. One can immediately think of several examples of each of the latter that have been in continuous production a decade or more -- models from Audio Note, Cary, YBA, and McIntosh come to mind. Measure hybrids against that yardstick and they come up short.

Except for the Pathos Lògos.