Built like a brick house. 20 year transferrable warranty. Superb customer service.

Waiting 6 weeks for delivery.

Can only add my voice to the chorus. This amp sounds great in my system. I was used to listening to my ~15 year-old NAD 3120 integrated amp--very musical in soft passages, but challenged by big orchestral tutti stuff. Replacement of the amop section with the Stratos broadened the soundstage massively, and the instruments keep their positions regardless of the dynamics of the music. It has exceeded my dreams. Only problem is that it pointed out the failings of the preamp section of the NAD, which will soon be replaced with an Odyssey Tempest (also a 6 week wait). Remainder of system is a Linn Sondek LP-12/Valhalla with Rega RB300 arm and Sumiko BPS cart. on Mana Sound Frame; Ah! Tjoeb 4000 CD player; NAD 3120 (preamp only); Royd Rydal A-14 speakers; Groneberg Serie 3 interconnects and speaker cables

Smooth, Detailed, Authoritative, Silent, Large Soundstage, Neutral, Service, Clean.

wait time

69 reviews and everyone has had the same reaction. How can this be? Service: When you order an Odyssey product you talk to the owner. Klaus was always up front about his products and the lead time to get them. He listened, never forced his products, and was always willing to help with suggestions on other components. On one occasion when I called, Klaus'' line was busy, so I hung up without leaving a message figuring I would call the next day. About ten minutes later I received a phone call from Klaus saying he noticed that I had called and wanted to know if I had any questions or any problems. Thats service. I have since ordered a second amp from him and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. Quality: The care in craftmanship of this amp is incredible. After I was done breaking my back moving the amp to the room where it was to be opened I marveled at how well built and how well packaged the amp was. Installing it into my system requried the temproary removal of my center channel. It''s a large amp and I hadn''t yet found a place for it. The initial sound out of the box unbelivable. While the dynamics and autority weren''t quite there yet, the detail was amazing. On one disc,"The Best of the Legend of Arslan" complete songs sounded differently and suddenly alive. Prior to the arrival of this amp I had debated buying new speakers. This amp made my Def Techs come alive. As time went by the bass became more full, the dynamics improved significantly, and more detail emergered as the music seemed to just flow out of my speakers. This amp has changed the entire sound of my system. Value: $1070. No need to elaborate on this point it speaks for itself. Faults: If there was one fault it was the wait, which took about 9 weeks. For some this will be enough to discourage them from buying this great product. For me the quality of this product coupled with an owner who cares about their reputation, products and customers was more than enough to offset the time delay and the money spent buying CDs in anticipation of the arrival of this amp. The wait for a quality product is short when compared with the time that could be spent listening to a poor quality one. System: Onkyo 747 receiver/preamp; Def Tech BP30 mains, CLR2000 center, and BPX rears; Sony DVP600 source; Analysis Plus Oval 12 speaker wire and Pure silver audio IC. Odyssey Stratos w/120mF cap upgrad

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned BK 4420, Anthem amp2, Rotel 1090, Bryston 9ST, ATI 1502,

Gorgeous, and extremely pleasant to look at, built like a tank with massive heat sinks. Run warm & dead quiet. 120 Amps of high current delivery with class A/AB. 14 days no questions asked return policy & 20 year warranty period. Knowledgeable and commitment of products before & after sale. Free tune-ups when you feel like it. Eight anodizing colors for you to choose from.

Sorry! Sorry! for those who do not know about this Odyssey Stratos Amp.

When my wife called to tell me UPS just delivered two big boxes, I decided to go easy with my front door when I get home. To my assumption I was right, the boxes were set by the door. Without wasting time, and my winter coat still on, I started moving the boxes to the listening room, and ended with rapid heartbeat, fatigue and sweat.
When I took out the two Mono amps out of the boxes for physical inspection, I started smiling, because of sumptuous in appearance of these beauties. And you will not believe this, I had them on the floor for days without hooking them, because I was moving things around and have to work them in the rack system, etc., and you know what? I usually sit on the chair or on the floor on daily basis and look at them with high admiration and joy. My wife who don't even care about electronics expressed her compliments, specifically Odyssey Stratos logo sign. My inspection confirmed that Stratos is not a feather weight, but super heavy weight. It features sturdy heavy RCA gold plated connectors, balanced XLR inputs and a lot more. This amp is built like a tank with massive heat sinks, the looks and feel is associated with so called high price tag amps like Krell & others. Needless to say the Stratos Monos gives you the best characteristic of solid state and tube sound in one box. Please do not judge this amp for its low budget price. As this is not a history or government class please excuse me, let's get on to business.

It is about four weeks of constant usage of the monos, and about ten to fifteen hours a day. Odyssey Stratos sound very good out of the box, but must add to other reviewers and company recommendations to allow more "operational time needed for your unit to perform at its best" after break-in. Each day of the past four weeks the monos have been revealing numerous expressive strengths in high end sound. Accuracy, imaging, separation are beyound expression. I hear it, feel it and enjoy it. Based on blind comparison with some friends between Hafler, Krell and Odyssey Stratos, we concluded that Odyssey Stratos has a noticeable fuller sound in neutrality, clarity, accuracy, transparency, separation, and midrange and bass is well control in Odyssey. Emphatically Stratos provides that punchy heart palpitating bass. If you plan to spend $3K to $5K price tag on a system, stop here don't look further.

The Odyssey Stratos wins by equaling or out performing the best amps you have heard dollar for dollar. Consumers are the real winners here, and can finally get the highest performance for the most reasonable price, and without breaking the Bank or getting a fight with love ones. With the monos you get high current delivery of 120 amps., 2x180W @ 8 ohms and 2x300W @ 4 ohms, and the warranty is a whopping 2 decades. Customer service is the best I have seen in the industry.

UNITS IN MY SYSTEM: Two 1953 Magnecorder Tube amps, Hafler -9505, Sony TA-E9000Es Pre-amp, Sony Receiver, 1978 Sansui amp, 1978 Advent and Eosone RSF-1000 speakers, etc.

Similar Products Used:

Clayton M70, Hafler,& Krell.

Expansive soundstage. Warm, yet highly detailed. Power supply seems endless. Gorgeous looks with the backlit engraved odyssey logo. A 20 yr warranty doesn't hurt either!

The biggest weakness is that not enough people will ever know how great this amp truly is because people will continually buy the big name Krell and levinson brands without giving the odyssey a shot, based on price alone

I purchased the stratos after I had written an article on audiogon wanting to know if anyone had heard the odyssey and marsh amps. I was looking specifically for an amp that could combine the warmth and musicality of tubes and the power and reliability of solid state. The owner of odyssey, Klaus Bunge, responded to my article and left a message to give him a call. While talking to Klaus, I mentioned that I had just purchased a Musical Design preamp and he said that was a perfect synergistic match for the statos. I had nothing to lose because of the in home trial, so he sent one to me with the 100,000 upgrade caps installed. He said he had these hanging around and he could help me out a little if I had these installed. It is an upgrade from the standard 60,000 but not quite as powerful as the 120,000. I received it within a week and when ups came the first thing I noticed was the heftiness of the box. I unpacked it and was totally impressed with the whole product. The amp was absolutely gorgeous and huge. The owners manual precise. It even came with a burnin cd and a vinyl binder. It also has a custom house power cord and specially damped feet. I hooked it up and straight from the cold, the amp sounded impressive. It has an expansive soundstage, which has continued to grow through the breaking in process. You can hear every detail in the recording with this amp. It has plenty of air around the strings of my Sting "The living sea" recording. The quicksilvers masked most of the details in the recording. The sim I could hear all the details but it just was'nt very involving. The stratos just seems to have it all. The separation between voice and instruments is incredible especially with a jazzy Diana Krall tune. It has sounded great from the get go and Klaus assured me it will only sound better! He called me a few days after I received the amp and was just checking to see if all his superlatives of his amp were true. I really could'nt thank him enough and told him I was extremely satisfied with his product. This is an amp that nothing can come close to at its price point. Its an amp that can compete with the krells and levinsons and in a blind test would probably beat them in most cases, especially musicality. This is a great amp and its backed by an even greater customer service dept. You know when you've found something special when you stop looking for other equipment and enjoy listening to all your cd's you have'nt listened to in years. The stratos amp has done this for me and I only hope that other people will take this amp seriously for what it is and not for what it costs. It truly is that good! 5 stars all around!

Similar Products Used:

conrad-johnson, marsh, Quicksilver monos, simi5080, ps audio, various adcoms, etc..

I Think we are fast running out of superlatives for this amp!!!

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Well I sincerely do believe that we are running out of superlatives for this amp. I have only used this amp since the beginning of the year but I can already tell you that I won't be upgrading amps anytime in the foreseeable future. I generally take a great deal of time auditioning many pieces of equipment before making my final decision(which only lasts on average for six months to a year in my system anyway.) Klaus was discussing with me one day on the phone my Tempest preamp, when he inquired as to what I was using for amplification. To make a long story short I took delivery of the amp within a few weeks. Now keep in my mind I am only 24 and have limited amounts of disposable income. This was not a decision I could afford to take lightly. Normally after dropping copious amounts of money on stereo equipment to satiate my addiction, I go through what is known as buyer's remorse. Not necessarily because I don't like the product, but more than likely because I just spent my rent allocation and possibly food is no longer a necessity for awhile. The box came. Upon installation and initial use I knew buyer's remorse was a thing of the past. If I didn't have a dime to my name for a long time to come - oh well. At least I have thousands of hours of music at my disposal. The amp is clean, transparent and careful not to trounce on any nuance of musical detail. I have gone through most of my collection of recordings with renewed vigor. I honestly feel as if I am sitting in front of a piece of equipment that I have no right being able to afford. This also goes for the matching Tempest preamp(I found it used for only $450 because the conservative Midwest audiophiles apparently had a problem with it's unorthodox, matronly knobs. Their loss, my steal.) I can say with great certainty these pieces will be with me until they leave me for equipment heaven. With a twenty year warranty I'm positive that won't be for quite some time.
P.s. Klaus blew me away with his candor and approachablity.
Final note - It took about 3.5 weeks before it opened up BIG TIME !!! Yes, I have the 120K upgrade.
Associated equipment:
Tempest preamp
Rotel 951 CD
NAD 533 Turntable
QED Tuner
Paradigm Studio 20's V.1
Kimber 8TC w/ WBTs
TMC interconnect(white label)
Nordost Solar Wind(tuner only)

Similar Products Used:

Marsh, Parasound, Rotel, McIntosh

Too many strengths to write, an excellent amplifier

None to speak of, unless you have a bad back, it wieghs over 54 pounds.

This is one of the best amplifiers I have ever heard. It is comparable to a Krell or a Mark Levinson. I have not had the opportunity to A- B them side by side, but after break in I no longer have any desire to look at anything else.

I own an Anthem Mca-3 and while it is a very good home theatre amp and a decent music amp there is really no comparison. I have always wanted a high end amp, but could never justify the cost, (especially to my wife).

Now for the sound, bass is powerful and tight. Midrange is just right and the treble sparkles without any brightness whatsoever. I have a pair of Paradigm Studio 100's v.2 and I was concerned that the bass might sound boomy. After just a week of break-in I was amazed at the tightness and control, this amp clamps down on your speakers and just pure accurate music flows through.

The soundstage is also excellent and I have had it just under a month and it seems to open up more every day. The instruments are separated spacially to a point where I know longer have to Worry about my equipment, I just listen to the music. This amp makes sweet non-fatigueing clear not laid back or bright just perfect music.

Klaus Bunge is a gentleman and very anxious to help with any questions, he doesn't rush to take your order and get you off the phone. He is just a great guy to talk to, excellent customer service. This is refreshing after most of the snobs in High End equipment that you deal with. I couldn't give this amp or this company a higher reccomendation. I have not even had a split second of buyer's remorse. I am ecstatic.

Associated equipment

Odyssey Stratos with 120,000 capacitance
Denon AVR 1800- (as a pre amp)
Onkyo Dvd dv-s535
Msb link Dac III with HDCD
Monarchy DIP 24/96
Anthem MCA-3
Paradigm studio 100 v.2
Paradigm studio CC v.2
Paradigm studio ADP v.2
Paradigm servo-15
Audioquest granite speaker cables
Silver Sonic BL-1 and xlo pro digital cables
Audioquest coral IC
Teknasonic c-10 and c-12 vibration dampers
Vibrapod #2
Waiting on a Groneberg 1.5 meter from odyssey

Similar Products Used:

Parasound 1500, Anthem MCA 3

Musicallity, build quality, customer service (Klaus Bunge and staff). The list goes on and on!

Umm, I don't think so!

I bought this amp based on the reviews here in this forum. I must say that it is the best audio related purchase I have ever made. The sound is simply gorgeous: expansive, airy, grain free, smooth and oh so sweet! What you read here in these reviews is absoluty true. The Stratos has the look, feel and performance that one would expect from a true high end audio product except without the mega-bucks price tag.

I opted for the 120,000 capacitance upgrade. It is said that this amp requires a long break-in period before it really comes alive but this amp sounded so sweet right out of the box. My wife and kids even noticed the difference over my other amp. My wife commented that the "harshness is gone" from the music. She actually sat down with me and listened for a few hours...very uncharacteristic. Hmmm.

If you are looking to purchase an amp in the 2000.00 to 5000.00 range, do yourself a favor and save some money - check out the Stratos before you buy. I beleive that they have a 30 day return policy (check it out at the web site). Klaus (and staff) was more than willing to spend time with me over the phone to make sure that I was getting what I needed (thanks Klaus!).

Folks, the quality and performance is there at a great price, you just have to go get it before the price goes up because of demand. I know I probably sound like a comercial for Odyssey Designs but I am really high on this product.

Happy listening!

Similar Products Used:

At this price, it is in a class all it's own.

expansive soundstage with fast accurate imaging

This amp is an unbelievable value. I upgraded from Marantz MA500 running in bridged mode and was blown away by the clean, neutral and beautiful sound.

Buy this amp now!

Too many to list.

6 week waiting list?

This review is based on my listening session at the N.Y. Home theater & hi-end show in N.Y.C. in May of this year. I stumbled on the Oddysey room by accident. After spending all of Saturday with a friend of mine listening to a dozen plus systems, I returned to the show on Sunday by myself. I decided to check out the Red Rose Music room ( Mark Levinsons new company) After my listeng session in the Red Rose Music room I heard the music coming from the Odyssey room, so I stepped inside and stayed for two hours! I was very impressed with the sound coming from his entry level system consisting of the Stratos stereo amp,Tempest pre/amp a pair of his speakers and his CD player wired with StageIII cabling. There was no fancy tweaks or room treatment. The sound was fatigue free,detailed and dynamic with lots of depth,air,and a huge sounstage! (sound that you would expect from a system in the $20,000+ range). When Klaus stated that the cost of the entire system was less than 5 grand including cables(not including the CD player) I could not believe it! Add to that a 20 year warranty and it's a no brainer! With the exception of the Audio Connection room ( Vandersteen 5's, Cary V12 monos,Aesthetix front end) I thought he had the next best sound there! This is one serious amp. I ordered one at the show and upgraded to the monoblocs two days later. (even though I just recently purchased an Audio Research VT100 MKIII for $6,000.00 a month earlier!) I have since sold the Audio Research (I don't think i'll be sorry) The amps should arrive in the next two days. Klaus is a character, he is a great guy. I intend to replace my entire system with the Odyssey line, including his speakers! You need not worry buying from him, these are the entry level Symphonic line products( a German company that has been around for 20 years and makes some of the finest stuff in the world) I don't know how he does it. Look for my upcoming review on the monoblocs. I would like to hear from anyone who has the Tempest pre/amp. Highly recommended!

Similar Products Used:

Audio Research,Quicksilver,Krell,Cary

Revealing, transparent, tight bass, airy, and Klaus Bunge with his after-sales service.

None

At the very outset let me warn you this is not going to be a review where I compare this unit to others costing thousands more, because the only thing I can effectively communicate is how it sounds to me and what difference it made in my system. There are also numerous reviews of this product here that are excellent and accurate, so I'll try to not be redundant.

I don't have a high-end system, but a real-world system. I had been using a Denon 3801 receiver with Harman Kardon CD and DVD players, and KEF Q70 floorstander speakers. Prior to the Denon, I had a Harman Kardon receiver, and the Denon was a slight improvement over that. However, I was not happy with the Denon's power and oomph in 2-channel listening, and it was also overly-bright. That is what I set out to correct and went in search of an amplifier that will cater to my music listening. I have over 2,000 CDs so music is very important to me. We all have our test CD's and demo CD's, but let's face it, how many of us only listen to CD's that are excellently recorded. To me, my music appreciation goes beyond that...the amp had to give me an overall sense of satisfaction. A "good" CD will sound good in any system, but it's the nuances that set apart the good from the bad.

After auditioning Rotel, Parasound, Adcom, and a couple of others, I realized I was something more than just a boost in power - it needed to have a certain something. That is when I stumbled across the reviews on The Absolute Sound and Soundstage, which led me to odysseyaudio.com and Klaus Bunge. I spoke to Klaus numerous times before actually taking the plunge, and he never once pressured me to buy the Stratos. I decided to get the Stratos with the capacitance upgrade. Klaus was very accomodating, and continues to be to this day.

As soon as the Stratos was introduced in my system, I knew this was something special. The Stratos is indeed heavy and rather massive, but with a little bit of creativity I found a place for it. Upon hooking it up to the Denon with the Groneberg interconnects I got from Klaus, my first impression was that the brightness was harsh and needed to calm down. I let it run for a couple of days before really doing any objective listening. Since March, the only time I turned it off was briefly when I bi-wired my speakers. This unit runs very cool, even in muggy D.C. heat.

Once it calmed down and burned in a little, the harshness gone, I found the Stratos to be very revealing and transparent, with great clarity. The soundstage had opened up tremendously and I was noticing a lot more detail in my music. The KEF's loved the power they were now getting and began to sing like never before. Since I listen to mostly classical and opera, it made a world of difference to me. The big symphonic pieces had the bombast and the power, yet retained the imagery, the chamber music revealed their various nuances, and the voices were prominent and lifelike. The soundstage is laid fairly back, which allows the layering and separation of the instruments to be more accurate. Of course, the recording must be up to par. That is, perhaps, the one downside of a revealing amp, it will expose a flawed, or less-than-perfect recording. But because the Stratos has such a wide and expansive soundstage, it makes even those recordings tolerable. The bass I found to be very tight and controlled. Even when I turned off my subwoofer, I found the bass more than adequate. Just for fun, I put on some Underworld and the bass was powerful and taut. Al this with the Denon as the preamp. The improvement wasn't just noticeable, it was a WOW!!! No complaints, but I still wanted to kick it into the next level, so I ordered a preamp with an AV passthrough.

The Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp I ordered should be coming in today, therefore my system will go through even more changes. After it has burned in, I will post another review to highlight the changes. A neutral tube preamp earlier in the chain should do wonders (I'm hoping).

To those of you who are still awake, I can't recommend this amp enough. It truly made a difference in my system. As many have mentioned to be true for them, it has made me dig up some old CD's that I had not listended to in ages and give them a try.

Different amps have different sonic characteristics; a high price-tag doesn't automatically guarantee excellence. It still has to sound good to you and with your existing setup. The Stratos is a very refined piece of gear, with many fine qualities, but it has to be heard to be believed. I for one, am glad I listened to Klaus and decided to audition it in my own home before passing any judgements. It has made me realize that I need to get other high-end gear to match its qualities, the preamp was the first step, a new CD player is next to come and soon, new speakers. But, I know I won't be shopping for another amp in the foreseeable future.

A hearty and enthusiastic endorsement for the Odyssey Stratos and the man behind it, Klaus Bunge.