Looking for an amp....Opinions about Odyssey or Bel Canto audio anyone?

Odyssey Khartago Plus and Extreme are awesome and great values

I had an Odyssey Stratos Extreme+++ amp for 6 years.  I sold it to buy a Conrad Johnson MF2550 amp and immediately wished I hadn't sold the Odyssey.  The amp is based on one of the Symphonic Line amps from Germany which cost 11K+,  The Odyssey amp always worked flawlessly, ran cool and gave an excellent presentation to the music.  You get a 20 year warranty and they are all hand made, one at a time in Indiana.  What is better than that?

Wow...I dare say nothing! 
Didn't know it was 20 years!

My experience with Odyssey was not so good. I had a Stratos, a Tempest and the new Candela when it came out. I had very low hum and low level spurious noise coming from the components. After not months, but over a year of dealings with no satisfaction I sold the equipment at a loss. YMMV. No experience with Bel Canto.

Check out some Bel Canto gear on You Tube wire it's being demoed and the Trade Rep. is discussing it. I don't own it myself but it looks to me like some well built gear. Not big heavy boxes so if you prefer Krell etc.
this may not be your preference. OTOH,,,

2psyop,
Why didn't you just return them? Especially if you were having such extreme problems, no?

French_fries,
Yes, everything I read about them is extremely positive, among the best of the class d family. I really like their high power as well. The ref1000m is 500 watts into 8ohms or 1000 into 4.
The only difference with that amp is that it's an icepower vs the newer ones being ncore.

If you’re looking at Bel Canto take a look at the REF500M instead of the 1000’s. Just a really sweet pair of amps that can deliver stunning inner details 

I recently purchased a used pair of Stratos Extreme mono blocks here on Audiogon. I had heard a lot of positive reviews on them so I thought I would give them a try. I was very surprised how good they sounded so much so that after talking to the Odyssey Audio owner Klaus Bunge, I sent them in to be upgraded to Kismets. I have had some SS amps in my system that were much more expensive then the Stratos and they did not sound nearly as good.

I've owned an Odyssey Stratos for over 15 years now, and had it upgraded to an Extreme model along the way. It's been very reliable and mates up well with tube preamps. I've been very happy with its performance and sound quality. I can't say anything bad about it. It's a real Giant Killer!

Consider the new Bel Canto REF600M monoblocks. They are extraordinarily good at there price point. I have owned the REF600M and the REF1000M. The 600M is a noticeable improvement. Great company btw. 

Markalarsen,
The new 600M is an ncore design, is it not? 

Jonas,
I know many people have had a good experience with Odyssey Audio. I cannot, nor would not, argue with that. In my own experience, after sending equipment to him twice, it was not fixed and I still had the same problems. I found out later his Tempest preamps has buzzing transformers from people who wrote on his own forum on audiocircle.com. So I had wanted to like and keep the equipment, but Klaus kept telling me it was a problem with my AC, which it was not....clearly after much testing. Ended up selling the gear back to Klaus and at very big $$ loss to me. If it were me, I would get the Bel Canto gear over the Odyssey if that was my two choices.

What about this classic beast?

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649428780-lae-mccormack-dna-2-amplifier/

You can't go wrong with either. My Bel Canto customer service was fantastic, and talking with Klaus was engaging and fun. They're both well-made and fantastic sounding.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

I had an Odyssey Stratos and replaced it with a Van Alstine 450, definite upgrade and service is good .

Look at the recently introduced Van Alstine SET 400.

http://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2018/9/13/the-van-alstine-vision-set-400-stereo-amplifier

Schubert/jackd....So you found the Van Alstine better than the Odyssey? It looks unremarkable, but I will definitely investigate further. Thanks for the tip.

The Van Alstine enthusiasts are over on Audio Circle.  There's a manufacturer's forum.  His stuff is very well made.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I had another question of I were to buy the bel canto amps...
As I said, I was looking at the REF 1000M monos--as they don't make them any more, I would be looking for a used pair. Are there any tips about buying used amps/electronics that would help? I've never bought any used electronics before, and I'm a little leery about it. You just don't know how they been used or abused...should I have it checked out after purchasing to make sure it's running at full capacity? Is that even an issue typically, or do they generally run at full capacity until they break completely?
Thanks!

Jonas, worth a look here.. Parasound JC5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTBTDX4uPcI have the A21 stereo amp and it is very good. This amp is about 3 steps up. The Parasound sound HINT has the preamp bulit in, but I like the JC5.

While the Van Alsine stuff is plain it is fantastvalue sonics and reliability wise.....

@jonasandezekiel 

I haven't owned a Van Alstine amp in years but Frank builds a quality product and stands behind as well as being easily accessible through his forum on AC.  His operation is bigger than Klaus' at Odyssey so the time from order to delivery is much less.  I now have my fourth Odyssey amp in house, a Kismet stereo, though to be honest it hasn't been used much recently.  You can't go wrong with either companies amps sound or quality wise. Some would find the Odyssey amps to be slightly warmer sounding in general but Frank's new SET series is thought to be more in that direction as well.  As to the Bel Canto's they are all Class D module based and usually they either work or they don't.  If buying in that arena I would make sure I was buying a current generation product whether it be Ncore or Icepower.  That would be an NC500 or AS1200 based amp.  The Nord products from the UK have been around for a while now and Colin is easy to work with. As to an earlier question the NC1200 based amps are few and far between and none are going to be "reasonably priced" as Hypex set pricing guidelines on amps built with those modules.  

Are there any measurements for Van Alsine stuff?. They are highly recommended however.

@jonasandezekiel 

You have never said what speaker you are attempting to drive and in what size room that needs these large amounts of power.

If you mean have they been reviewed by Stereophile then the answer is no. After over 40 years in business Frank has no reason to fudge on his published specs. They have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee so you can try them and see what you think. The SET 400, the 600 monos or even the Odyssey Kismet will easily push the top end of your new Aries. .

Jackd...
I'm driving Legacy Audio studio HDs. They can handle, and need some decent power to sound their best. Not mid-ranging enough for my taste, and I want more bass. I'm just not happy with my current amp-- no pun intended.

The SET 400 looks very nice, the only drawback is no balanced connections. 

Next step up solves that but at a price.

https://avahifi.com/collections/power-amplifiers/products/dva-set-600-mono-block-solid-state-amplifi...

Would also consider a used PS Audio BHK 250.  Great amp.

Very nice. Maybe even MORE power than I need! Five Gs for my front end though...ouch.

@jackd I am not talking about stereophile review + measurements. But just specs like other vendors do. A full detailed analysis does help more though. It’s says 500+ Watts to @ 4 ohm. But what is the THD at 500?. How does it perform at 2 ohm. Slew rate. I am talking about SET 600.

Frank, like Klaus at Odyssey is not big on that kind of thing but I am sure he will be willing to talk to you and tell you whatever you want to know.  From something he said the other day on his Circle there have only been a couple of pair built and sold so far.  Take advantage of the trial period and see what you think.  Return shipping is certainly cheaper than buying an amp you don't like.

Odyssey is a rather "underdog" type of company and they do not do all the "measurements and specs" that major companies do.  I have looked at the Odessey equipment and overall architecture.  It is very good and uses high quality internal components, but they do not have all the bells and whistles that major brands do (such as remote turn-on trigger, etc.).  Not even a magnetic power switch - it is a fully manual rocker switch.  If you want the most amount of sound quality in a piece for the least amount of money, then Odyssey is definitely a great option.  I have a friend that has the Odyssey Khartago/Candella combo and it does sound very excellent.  If you get the amp, I would recommend doing the upgrade to get the bigger power supply capacitor bank.

Regarding the ground loop hum, their Candella preamp does have a slight ground loop hum.  My friend has extremely high efficient speakers (we are talking 99db efficient) and you can definitely hear the ground loop hum interaction between Candella and Khartago.  However, it's not that bad.  If you use a normal 87-89db speaker, you should not hear it.
--
Regarding the Parasound amps.  They are very excellent high current amps, but are voiced on the warm side.  If you want a warmer and fuller sounding amp (especially if you have fast/thin sounding speakers such as Focal), then the Parasound will likely be a much better choice than the Odyssey.