Odyssey monoblock thoughts.


Own an old pair, sound crystal and amazing, low watt ones. But sound so nice.

 Anyone own the newer ones!” Kismet, or a new 2018 pair, and your thoughts on their sound.

break in time, and the sound after break in?
leave the on all the time? Or off during the week, and on for weekthe nds?

need help with these amps.

thanks
arcticdeth

Showing 4 responses by stereo5

@arctikdeth...………………………………………

I am confused. A couple of years ago/few years ago in The Audio Circle, you posted many questions about the Kismet amps in the Odyssey forum. You were also told by Klaus at Odyssey who hand builds these amps that the amp puts out between 180 and 200 watts per channel. There were quite a few conversations on all your Odyssey threads between the various members, myself included.

Now, a few years later, you are asking the same questions on an Audio Forum that most likely has very few Kismet owners. I ask why?   Let me recap what I told you about the Kismet amps:

I had a pair of Stratos Extreme mono blocks with the Kismet black boards,  The mono blocks used a 400 volt transformers.  I had my Stratos Extreme updated to Kismet status in 2016.  The Kismet is the same black board with an 800 volt transformer in each mono block.  The caps are all made by Symphonic Line and they are extremely expensive.  Most of the parts in my Stratos circuit boards were upgraded to much more expensive ones.  The Groneberg wiring was upgraded to Gronebergs best.  Every aspect of the amps were upgraded.
The sound is like the Stratos Extreme on steroids.  A much fuller sound, the notes are more fleshed out, the bass goes deeper midrange is quite neutral and the highs are clear without being bright.  The amps were dead silent and they were left on 24/7.  Regarding break in, cold out of the box they sounded nice but nothing special.  After the first day the sound started opening up and for the next month it was up and down until the sound settled in to what I described above.  In all I logged about 400 hours before I found the amps to sound their best.   Klaus states all of this in the owners manual.
I had a Stratos extreme and Kismet mono blocks.  I am now running all McIntosh.  I heard a Magtech on another persons system and I thought it was lean sounding.  I loved both the Kismet Mono blocks and Stratos Extreme amps.  I had the Stratos and the Kismets almost 2 years.  In that time I also had a Conrad Johnson MF2550 250wpc amp and found it to be thick and syrupy slow sounding.  I never ever had a problem with any of my Odyssey equipment and they are built to last.  Klaus is one of the nicest guys in all of audio and takes care of his customers  as best he can.  2psyop has complained in every Odyssey thread that he lost money and had faulty equipment both here and on Audio Circle.  Klaus went the extra mile for this guy but somehow things didn't work out.  I have never heard of one other person who had a bad experience with Odyssey.  It is a  lot of Audio for the money.