Hybrid amps have always amused me. I still dream of Radford's TT100. This hi-fi equivalent of grafting two plant species hopes - ideally - to combine the best of a brace of disparate technologies. Too often, they marry the worst. Extraudio's X250T represents a first for me in that it promises to take efficient, compact Class D amplification and endow it with the sonic virtues of Class A, hence Class AD. Which made me think of playing with Krells way back in 1985 [PM covers off the technology in his boxout, p51]. Given that this £8495 integrated amp's £4000-dearer sibling, the X250, is a hybrid of a different sort, in which valves and Class D are combined, one might infer that the founders of this Dutch company suffer schizophrenia, if not, ADD. But the proposal is sensible, if you are told the X250T's goal is to offer 1) value for money, 2) zero obsolescence, 3) reliability and 4) a 'Listening experience at affordable price'.
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