[klaus@odyssey]

http://totalharmonicdistraction.com/

[Tomy2Tone]

Thanks for posting this. Definitely gives you an insight to who and what you're all about Klaus!

I'll say it again, Newport was my first show and my first time hearing a lot of the high end systems that are in magazines and have dealers. It seems I wasn't the only one that thought a good majority of the rooms at Newport were very poor sounding either resulting from improper room setup, bad sources, or just plain overrated products. A lot of people will say that as the show goes from Friday to Sunday each room will make adjustments and will sound better by Sunday afternoon.

The Odyssey room at Newport sounded absolutely fantastic from the get go. I laughed at the cost of some of the other rooms that were just ok sounding while I go in the Odyssey room and get soul satisfying sound at a fraction of the price.

Not only do you get incredible performance from his products but you get an honest down to earth kind of guy in Klaus. I mentioned in another thread that it was my first time meeting him but after 15 minutes you feel like you've known Klaus for years. I wish you all the best Klaus and hopefully I'll get to see ya again at RMAF.

Nice to hear Jim's story as well. Another down to earth guy selling outstanding products. I feel lucky that I'm a Salk owner and soon to be Odyssey owner in a hobby of so many choices it reassures me that my money has been well spent.

[Phil A]

Thanks for posting.  Listening to it now.

[klaus@odyssey]

And please feel free to leave some comments....

[Phil A]

I thought it was spot on.  I had a couple of guys over a bit over a week ago listening to a couple of my systems.  One guy is really technical.  Builds his own stuff.  He came out of the room with a picture of the inside of Candela preamp (in the system he was listening to) he found on the web and was most impressed.  It's hard to walk into a dealer and see something that is two to three times the price of Odyssey gear that isn't as good.

[GentleBender]

Very interesting listen. It gave more insight into why and how you got into this business. Who needs all that snobbism? Not me, just some great and affordable gear.

What you said about people being priced out of good audio equipment was right on. Before I had a friend recommend Odyssey Audio and finding Audiocircle because of that, I really wasn't convinced I would be able to afford the sound that I now have. Good sound is what makes me happy and the great and fair prices you offer leave more room for purchasing the music I want to hear. I know the friends who have listened to my setup that includes your Cyclops and Suspiro Phono stage have been blown away.

I say let the snobs overpay for their gear! 

[Arcticdeth]

I would not call odyssey enexpensive.

5 thousand dollars for the best monoblocks from odyssey is very expensive to some.
6000 for speakers is huge money!! Mthats a huge part of our finances. Yearly income is under 34,000 for both of us.  It sucks, but thats what was handed to me.

[Arcticdeth]

A huge hell yeah to those who 5000 is a months work salary. Enjoy.
Are you hiring? )

[GentleBender]

A huge hell yeah to those who 5000 is a months work salary. Enjoy.
Are you hiring? )

Arcticdeth,

My Odyssey gear is a Cyclops integrated amp and Suspiro Phono Stage that together cost less than half of $5000. My speakers were demo units costing less than half the original price. This setup goes louder than I need, but it is fun to crank it up from time to time. Megadeth never sounded better! I sure would love some mono block Kismet or Stratos, but that would be overkill plus really out of my budget right now. There are some used mono Stratos and I believe Kismets too in the trading post now for $1500. I like looking for bargains as others play the upgrade game. Keep an eye out for used gear from people with good ratings.

If you go for monster speakers that require a monster amp, be prepared to spend some money if you want them to sound good.

[Arcticdeth]

I have my speakers for the nezt 15+ years. Picked up the energy clearance rc-70's. They are totally amazing!!!  I honestly cojld not be happer. Looking forward to getting home. Firing up flotsam n jetsam ( xpa 1's named by the wife). Having a nice jam session with the speakers.

I only wish i had kmported my music with lossless. I did the 128k to save room. And much of the music on ipod sounds a little poor. Not bad. But lossless or cd ,lp. Is night and day.

I am happy. I am sure kismets will elevate the rc-70's to another level. I hope. For 5 large they better

Will i get better sound from kismet konos over first edition xpa 1 momos. The emotiva stuff. They shojld really change their name, its horrible

[GentleBender]

The emotiva stuff. They shojld really change their name, its horrible

Bad sounding amps cause emotions too!  Bad ones...

I haven't listened to First Edition XPA, but I'm willing to bet they would, probably in mono even. My Odyssey Cyclops is only rated at 110 WPC and pushes my speakers that have a nominal 4ohm load very well. I couldn't find the sensitivity rating of those Energy speakers, but I know Odyssey Audio gear pushes plenty of current in my setup. The best gear is that of which you can afford and enjoy!

I've recently begun the re-ripping of my tunes to ALEC (apple lossless) and have a long way to go. When I did it the first time space wasn't so cheap! Sure this won't be the last time. 

[Arcticdeth]

Bad sounding amps cause emotions too!  Bad ones...

I haven't listened to First Edition XPA, but I'm willing to bet they would, probably in mono even. My Odyssey Cyclops is only rated at 110 WPC and pushes my speakers that have a nominal 4ohm load very well. I couldn't find the sensitivity rating of those Energy speakers, but I know Odyssey Audio gear pushes plenty of current in my setup. The best gear is that of which you can afford and enjoy!

I've recently begun the re-ripping of my tunes to ALEC (apple lossless) and have a long way to go. When I did it the first time space wasn't so cheap! Sure this won't be the last time. 

It took me a couple years to rip all mine to 128k so I can fit all on 2 iPods.  I cringe at the thought of doing that again,   I have so much which are downloaded from YouTube, websites, my LP to cd transfers, and not including my 3000+ cd's. Would take me several years.  Is it really worth all t he time??

Sure, it will sound no a whole lot better, but the price for the 1tb iPod is murder in the skies (Gary Moore drop)

[Phil A]

128 is nowhere even near CD quality.  Years back I bought a WD Media Player (it was my first attempt to digitize stuff) and it said it was WMA compatible.  It was a lie.  It came with conversion software that coverted it to 320 and would only play 128.  It took me a year to rip thousands of songs and above 2 songs into my DAC to decide to give the player away.  Terrible sounding.  Fine for a car perhaps.  So yes I would recommend re-ripping things.

[Phil A]

I sold a 160GB iPod Classic several months back (had it for 7-8 years and got about 75% of what I paid for it).  I had 320bps MP3s and a few lossless things on it.  I listened to it on long trips so didn't get used tons.  I had to re-convert to 128 AAC (using an old 32GB iPhone 4) to fit things on the iPhone and to me even for the car it is not great.  I'll probably eventually get a hi-rez player when the amount of storage is a bit better.

[Arcticdeth]

What size hard drive will I need for 78,000+ songs in lossless for mat?

[Phil A]

What size hard drive will I need for 78,000+ songs in lossless for mat?

You certainly don't have to do every one.  What good is having lots of stuff that doesn't sound good?  I'm not even sure with that kind of resolution how you can determine whether a component is good or not (after I listened to two songs in that resolution years back it was clear how bad it was - I would have listened to one but went the extra mile by and sampled some stuff - it was terrible - I'll tolerate for the car for the few long trips I go on and as soon as I can get something of this quality even if it a bit more money with more storage capacity I'll do it -http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-X1-FiiO-Silver/dp/B00NS3MRKC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1434198573&sr=8-3&keywords=fiio).  I have 40,000 songs on the music server.  Not only CDs, but downloaded hi-rez files (a few even more than 24/192), burnt DVD-As and SACDs (and those files are huge).  It is about 5TB worth of music.  I'd guess if you did all the songs you'd be in the neighborhood of 2TB give or take (probably no more than 3 for sure).  Why don't you just take something you have (one album) that is well recorded and do it lossless and compare? At 128, what I listened to was lifeless.  I could tolerate 320.  I even have an SACD (Rickie Lee Jones) that came with 256bps MP3s and that is passable.

[Phil A]

What size hard drive will I need for 78,000+ songs in lossless for mat?

Here's one article - http://lifehacker.com/5810575/does-bitrate-really-make-a-difference-in-my-music

[GentleBender]

What size hard drive will I need for 78,000+ songs in lossless for mat?

Maybe someone should start a separate thread for this instead of hijacking this one. 

[Cheeseboy]

Great interview Klaus.  You are one of the Good Guys in audio today.  It isn't something that you say.  Its something that you do.  You do less yada yada and more bang for the buck.  The Odyssey/GIK room at the Newport show that featured one of your modest priced systems was spectacular.  You break the barrier from asses of the masses mid fi sound into truly audiophile presentation that rivals equipment at 6x the price.  One of the guys I was in you room with has designed gorgeous sounding cables for many years wanted to know what amplifiers we were listening to.  When I told him how much they were he fell off the chair.  I'll finally get to hear your amps in my system.  The fully broken in amps are coming to the house next weekend. 

Keep up the good work

Steve