Yes.. I know most people would find it an odd choice but using tubes for doing the actual amplifying seems unnecessary to me now that we have semiconductors to do that job. It wears out tubes faster and the output impedance is too high for my headphones at least (unless you buy a $2.5K amp, which I won't). I researched for hybrid amps and I couldn't find anyone with unanimously positive reviews so I thought that the most technically correct solution would be using discrete units that perform their own specific task instead of one combo that does two completely different things. And a preamp leaves the possibility open for using in a speakers setup as well.