Aloha all,
Paul Fradale here. Stumbled across this site tonight, hard to believe I had not seen it before. I moved to Japan from Hawaii in August and am the tech coordinator (read: lab geek) at a small international school.
I purchased the mono extremes and tempest with remote (the plain black one) from Klaus prior to my departure. At my request he built and biased them for the 100V/60Hz power here and my custom speakers. I built a pair of MTM-configured Lambda Unity horns which you can see if you hit the gallery page on the Lambda site; iirc, Nick dubbed mine the "monoliths".
I just bought a (used) Sony SCD-1 at a local shop, and all I can say is wow.
I thought the Tempest/Monos sounded great before, but the SCD-1 brought it all to a new level. Serious chicken-skin here, folks, and I mean that literally. Much is made of system synergy and the combo I have now has it in spades.
I listen mostly to jazz; right now I am listening to McCoy Tyner's Land of Giants, and the speed and control of the bass is astounding. Earlier I was listening to the SACD Kind of Blue and was immediately struck with the air and shimmering quality of the cymbals. Listener fatigue looks to be a thing of the past.
Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and let Klaus know how pleased I am with the system. For those considering the jump: do it. Odyssey products really are a delight to own. I read a few threads here about sources, and can heartily recommend the SCD-1 in conjunction with an Odyssey system. They were discontinued in the US, I believe, but can be had used in the $2.5KUS range.
One last note: the only fly in the ointment for me has been the homely black remote. I see now there is a Symphonic remote available, but it appears to have a plethora of buttons for other gear. Since I only need volume control, I am working on a remote of my own. When it is done I'll let you know how it turned out and what it would take to make one yourself.
