things I notice right away were speed. Transients are very fast right down to the deepest bass. Very close to live acoustic bass. Yet I also noticed linearity in the upper mids and highs. Channel separation becomes noticeable very soon after listening to them. You simply can't over drive them (believe me Klaus has tried to at my house). It's just real hard to tax them.
A couple nights ago, I listened to Buddy Miles and Carlos Santana play on an LP. This LP is not made for the weak, and is well known for destroying speakers. Hard for an amp not to clip, and even harder on drivers. We cruised right thru it. Now my first Stratos SE would have played it OK, but not with the linearity I heard the other night. The only solid state amp to play it OK I've heard was an Accuphase, and the Stratos clearly was better. I have played the other copy I own thru a couple 40 watt tube amps (Sonic Frontiers and an Anthem) with Meadowlark speakers. The sound was nice, but seemed slow compared to the Stratos. The Meadowlarks are still one of my all time favorite speakers, and know that the current owner loves them. I did play them for almost a year with the Stratos SE, and the sound made you almost come to tears. They are a high impedance speaker designed for tubes. I wish Klaus would give us something like them. The Accuphase cooked when a driver let go on a set of Synergistics speakers playing that same LP. Two things were wrong here. First was 4 ohm speakers with the Accuphase amp. They don't like low impedance loads. The second was the speakers were not over built like the ones I have now. Might add that there was a lot of Irish Whiskey in the room as well. This same LP had destroyed three amps, and at least six pairs of speakers prior, so I should have known better of course. I figured that my brother inlaw's Technics turntable couldn't track it.
gary