Odyssey Audio Kismet Mono Blocks

i have had many hegels and also have a stratos stereo amp with the various upgrades

i think the big hegels will have an ever so slightly more detailed presentation (i am talking about the amp section only of course) and a smidge tighter bass, whereas the odyssey is a little smoother a little more laid back up top and have a little more bloom in the bass... both will have very nice midrange and excellent top to bottom coherence

i really don't think mono vs stereo matters much here, it is about the circuitry and the quality of design and build of the amps here 

I had a Stratos Extreme amp for at least 6 years or so. The Kismet is the next step up from the Extremes.  My Extreme had the black Kismet boards in it and I loved the amp. Great midrange, amazing bass, and the treble had detail yet was never ever shrill. Only reason I sold it (very hesitantly) was because I went in on a mostly all McIntosh system. You can’t go wrong with the Kismet, mono or stereo amps.

Thanks for the replies.  Wow if the Odysseys are a little smoother up top that would be something!  One of the best attributes about the Hegel, IMO, is the smooth presentation.  I would have to sell the Hegel to purchase the Kismets.  Something I've considered doing for a while now but just can't get myself to list it!  

Thanks again.

You may want to look into the Van Alstine monoblocks.

one other thing i would add is that the odyssey amps have pretty high input sensitivity, and they run best via the rca inputs -- sometimes people have trouble with gain matching depending on what they use to feed the odyssey amps in terms of preamp or dac (if direct feed)