[Tomy2Tone]

Yep, pretty sure. Actually I'm positive, no doubt about it! How the hell else can I explain how he makes such freakin unbelievable amps! I'm sure when he was there at the crossroads with Robert Johnson and Ralph Macchio and of course the devil he must have made a hellava deal in order to create some of the most amazing and wonderfully beautiful sounding amps!

In case you're wondering WTF, I just received a pair of Kismet monoblocks from the man himself, Klaus Bunge. Right out of the box, and I mean literally right out of the box within the first 10 minutes of plugging them in I started hearing the sound I've been looking for my whole audiophile life. Detail, natural ease, finesse, separation of instruments and on and on...Absolutely wonderful! And the kicker is Klaus tells me I'm not even out of first gear yet! I mean really Klaus? He laughed at me when I told him I just plugged them in, he thought I've had them since Friday. If it only gets better from here I don't know how I'm going to take it, I mean I'm really happy for the first time since getting started in this silly hobby. Everything I was hoping for these amps deliver. I can't get over how good they sound...Thank you Klaus for being born and bringing us these wonderful delights of musical heaven. 

Here's some pics of the insides for your viewing pleasure...They're like freakin muscle cars!!

First is a pic of what I had sent to Klaus followed by the end result...

















They weigh about 70lbs each. I can't believe after throwing theses things around all day Klaus doesn't look like this guy....

[Arcticdeth]

Sigh.  They are amazing looking.  I hate being financially challenged.

[DaveC113]

Congrats, Tom! 

I was pretty sure they would be a great match with your Soundscapes, glad they are working out. I just built a new amp myself, or re-built my old amp... but in any case I am having them same reaction right now.  

[Tomy2Tone]

Sigh.  They are amazing looking.  I hate being financially challenged.

The best way to do it is buy a Stratos Extreme pair used from somebody and have them ship them to Klaus and ask him to upgrade them to Kismets and 8 months later you get your amps...kinda like layaway. It's what I did.

Congrats, Tom! 

I was pretty sure they would be a great match with your Soundscapes, glad they are working out. I just built a new amp myself, or re-built my old amp... but in any case I am having them same reaction right now.  

Next to your cables these are the most enjoyable purchase I've made yet! Of course you could say they go hand in hand. 

Can't wait to see those speakers you got cooking some day...

[GentleBender]

Detail, natural ease, finesse, separation of instruments and on and on...Absolutely wonderful!

Exactly how I felt about this little Cyclops he sells.  One day I will have to check the monos out, but I'm so happy with my current setup. The only thing I really need is a really good turntable, any luck Klaus? 

I've been listening to so much music, now that I have some great gear. So fun going through the collection to hear all the stuff you were missing. Can you imagine a home theater setup with a pair of maxed out Stratos HT-3's? I don't have the space for that kind of setup, but I imagine it would blow you away.

[Tomy2Tone]

Exactly how I felt about this little Cyclops he sells.  One day I will have to check the monos out, but I'm so happy with my current setup. The only thing I really need is a really good turntable, any luck Klaus? 

I've been listening to so much music, now that I have some great gear. So fun going through the collection to hear all the stuff you were missing. Can you imagine a home theater setup with a pair of maxed out Stratos HT-3's? I don't have the space for that kind of setup, but I imagine it would blow you away.

I was up late last night listening to my albums on the Aries and I hate to say the old cliche of hearing the same song for the first time but that's about what it's like. Certain tracks I thought didn't sound that great before are now drawing me in because of all the things I'm hearing that I never noticed before.

It's kind of like that picture that ifi likes to use to show the musicians before the iusb power or whatever is plugged in and they're all blurry but when the iusb is in the chain they become clear as day. That's how I'm picturing the music now with the Kismets. Klaus said it will take around 4 months for these amps to fully settle in to their final sound...

Forum member TJHUB has Stratos Extremes with HT3's so he probably knows the answer to your question...

[Phil A]

Sigh.  They are amazing looking.  I hate being financially challenged.

It takes time to save $ and patience.  Sometimes I've looked for a piece of audio equipment used that I wanted and it has been over a year and a half before I found one.  Sometimes you may find one of the stereo amps used at a good deal and it is a good first step for a step up in your system. Don't despair, just look to make progress.

[Arcticdeth]

I have been saving for over 3 years and not close to kismets. Still need preamp also.  Nad 165bee and parasound p-5. Must get other preamp fixed as well b&k pro10mc. Takes too long. Sell all and buy bose? 

Frustrating. Very frustrating seeing everyone elase buy 5-10,000$ stuff whenever and act like its pocket change. It sucks.

[Arcticdeth]

2tone:

Amps are beautiful, crushingly wicked!!! I bet they sound amazing!

Congrats on your new toys


More info, reviews, pictures , more, more.

[Tomy2Tone]

2tone:

Amps are beautiful, crushingly wicked!!! I bet they sound amazing!

Congrats on your new toys

Thanks man, sent you a pm. I'll chime in from time to time and share how they sound as they break in over the next few months..

[Arcticdeth]

On a good note i drove my amp to rockford IL  saturday to reset and tighten the loose transformer in my 600w sunfire signature. Would have been fixed same day, and brought home but we had to get back home for a family party. So i have to make the 3 hour drive to rockford again in 2 weeks to get my warhorse back!

Makes emotiva mono's sound like crap.

[Arcticdeth]

JUST spoke with The guy from the repair shop in Rockford.
The old warhorse came off the bench and said he was impressed to say the least. He measured output before clipping at:
612w@8ohm
1,230w@4ohm
2,460+@2ohm
And bursts of over 4000w@1ohm via a 30 amp line in his shop.
He asked me if i was interested in selling. I had to say no, his offer was very good, but i just couldnt sell my pride & joy. Looking forward to picking it up in a couple weeks and hooking it up and replacing the emotiva with my old Carver warhorse. Gonna make my rc-70's rock & roll!!!!

[GentleBender]

JUST spoke with The guy from the repair shop in Rockford.
The old warhorse came off the bench and said he was impressed to say the least. He measured output before clipping at:
612w@8ohm
1,230w@4ohm
2,460+@2ohm
And bursts of over 4000w@1ohm via a 30 amp line in his shop.
He asked me if i was interested in selling. I had to say no, his offer was very good, but i just couldnt sell my pride & joy. Looking forward to picking it up in a couple weeks and hooking it up and replacing the emotiva with my old Carver warhorse. Gonna make my rc-70's rock & roll!!!!

Not bad specs. Good to hear you'll be back in business. 

[Phil A]

Frustrating. Very frustrating seeing everyone elase buy 5-10,000$ stuff whenever and act like its pocket change. It sucks.

A lot guys like me are probably older and saved and sacrificed or a long time to make it to retirement.  Not pocket change but certainly stuff I could not afford 20 years ago.  I picked up a Sherbourn preamp (not the end all but quite decent that was about $900 retail when they had a dealer network and then they went to a direct to consumer model for $530 and then the president of the company retired, they merged with Emotiva and they blew them out for $180, shipping included) on the cheap for a secondary system (has HT Bypass and a Phono Preamp if you need those).  This one says local pick-up only and they are selling it for $290 - http://app.audiogon.com/listings/solid-state-sherbourn-pre-1-with-phono-stage-as-new-2015-07-14-preamplifiers-11209-brooklyn-ny

[Arcticdeth]

Heart set on thenparasound p-5 and or NAD 165bee for pre's. Once i get the kismets, ill demote sunfire to secondary system in basement with my modded D-9's.

Anyway, if you want to upgrade 2tone let me know.  Enjoy !

[Phil A]

Heart set on thenparasound p-5 and or NAD 165bee for pre's. Once i get the kismets, ill demote sunfire to secondary system in basement with my modded D-9's.

Besides stuff like Audiogon, you can use Ad Hunter to search all of Craigslist and stuff like this comes up - http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/ele/5164843879.html

[DaveC113]

I have been saving for over 3 years and not close to kismets. Still need preamp also.  Nad 165bee and parasound p-5. Must get other preamp fixed as well b&k pro10mc. Takes too long. Sell all and buy bose? 

Frustrating. Very frustrating seeing everyone elase buy 5-10,000$ stuff whenever and act like its pocket change. It sucks.

Don't be frustrated, it's not worth it. The truth is it never ends, you can spend a million bucks on a system if you want, there's not a ton of folks who can afford that but it's doing nobody any good to pout that they can't afford a $1M system. It's a far better attitude to be grateful for what you do have, and the energy you put out with those sort of thoughts will bring more to be grateful for while being frustrated you can't afford more will just bring you more frustration.

The one thing to understand is that money and performance are not necessarily tied together and it's possible to achieve a lot in audio on a limited budget. Especially if you are good at shopping and/or DIY. If you can learn DIY you can get similar performance for a small fraction of retail prices. My DIY SET amp recently went up against nearly $20k worth of commercial tube gear, the result was the sale of the tube gear my amp was compared to. I spend about 1/10th the cost of the retail gear DIYing my own and it was still better.

[steve f]

Companies like Odyssey are successful in part because they offer value. An amp that's good enough for reference systems at a much lower price. ($1K and up)

If you're a budget conscious audiophile, and most are, you have to learn to shop carefully, or build stuff. Do homework. There is a lot of good advice from friendly people. There is a lot of BS out there too. Watch out for audio snobbery. And have fun.

steve

[charmerci]

I have been saving for over 3 years and not close to kismets. Still need preamp also.  Nad 165bee and parasound p-5. Must get other preamp fixed as well b&k pro10mc. Takes too long. Sell all and buy bose? 

Frustrating. Very frustrating seeing everyone elase buy 5-10,000$ stuff whenever and act like its pocket change. It sucks.

..or you could just spend $150 on a used Pioneer VSX-D912 receiver and be done with it!


http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=68889.0

[DaveC113]

..or you could just spend $150 on a used Pioneer VSX-D912 receiver and be done with it!


http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=68889.0

Or the Crown XLS series, you can get a 300+ wpc amp for $250ish right now and it's surprisingly good.