Integrated Amp that goes well with Triangle Celius

Ah, XLR8OR, welcome to the insanity, I mean, Audiogon community! Looking forward to seeing pics of your system soon! :) Let's see, we haven't talked about our amps for, oh, say, ten hours now, in our nearly daily conversations over the past three weeks...

I am the only other person in the world (at least that we two know about) who's running Pathos Classic One MkII's in bridged (mono) mode.

I agree with everything he's said about them. They're wonderful.

If your budget doesn't allow for about $3k to obtain two of them, then I would begin with one, and as finances permitted, secure the second and go to bridged mode. A PHENOMENAL improvement and massive upgrade for a relative pittance.

I had no clue how huge the improvement is in power/sound with a tube hybrid integrated. And then, to go mono, OH YEAH! SUPER SWEET!! I agree that this is the sweet spot of ampification in hifi. Utterly amazing sound.
As I've said before, maybe one can bridge other brands of tube integrateds and if so, wonderful. I haven't taken the time to research it, but it may be VERY well worth your time!
I've heard of "tube tsuris" I guess that's the grief that comes from tube amps. The integrateds sure give you none of that. No heat issues, no expensive tubes, etc. I'm SO glad I went this route! I used to own PS Audio HCA-2 and a Rogue Magnum 66 tube pre. Not even close in comparison. I could not go back to it now, I'm too spoiled. In fact, I wouldn't want to go back to solid state at all. Not when there's this good of sound for such a good price in tubes.

Yes, Chulheekim, you need two amps to run bridged/monobloc. The terms are interchangeable.

All stereo amps that can be run mono have some way to swtich them/reconfigure them to output only one channel instead of two. This necessitates having two identical amps to accomplish stereo sound.

BUT not all stereo tube integrated amps are able to be run mono. So, you would need to check that first before buying. If you do not care to ever purchase a second amp and try using them bridged/mono, then it is not necessary that the amp be able to run mono.

What we're saying is that if you are looking for a stereo tube integrated amp, check to see if it can later be switched to bridged/mono mode if you choose to add a second identical amp. If so, the two amps running mono will almost assuredly sound far better than the one stereo amp.

Using the two Classic One amps I have sound that is far better than the cost of the separate preamp/amp combinations I have tried in the past (which were about the same price together as the two Pathos amps).

Running them bridged/mono over one stereo integrated adds...one piece to the system (2nd amp). Not nearly as death-defying as it sounds. In fact, bridged/mono integrateds use two less interconnects than using pre and amp. Don't let the fancy terminology fool ya. No more complicated than trying to set up separate preamp and amp. On the Classic One, all I needed do was flip one switch to make them mono. Ughhh! Tough.

Left cd out goes to left amp, to left speaker.

Right cd out goes to right amp, to right speaker.

It's THAT simple. Well, almost. ;) You just have to connect everything right on the speaker connections or you blow it all up! Lost my first house that way! ;)

And then, if you want to run a sub with it, you gotta biwire each mono amp...yeah, second thought, go get a Bose. Glad I could be of help. LOL