Fedex delivered my amp at 9 this morning. The driver remarked how incredibly heavy the box was and asked me what it was. He was amazed when I told him it was an amplifier and he told me he had been very careful with it. Unpacking the unit was a pleasant experience, the owners manual is much better than I expected, and better than most of the manuals I have received with my other high end gear costing thousands more. The test cd was a very nice touch as was my name on the back of the amp.
After unpacking the amp, I popped the top off the unit, as I just couldn't resist. In addition to the amp being the Stratos Extreme, it also had the K Board modification and the full cable modification as well. The inside is such a beautiful piece of engineering. All the solder connections were first class and everything inside looked absolutely perfect. I gotta say, the metal case is something else! It made the case on my Classe Audio 15 amp ($2,999.00 in 1998) look cheap by comparison.
Thankfully, my audio rack has very generous sized shelfs as the amp just fit. I hooked everything up and used my trusty Shunyata Copperhead power cord to power up the amp from one of my two 20 amp dedicated outlets. I flipped the power switch and held my breath. My main concern was if I was going to getr any hum from my loudspeakers as I always had hum with the Classe amp. I am happy to say the amp is dead quiet. I raised the volume on the tube preamp a bit and was pleasantly surprized. It sounded pretty good cold. I had thought the amp would sound aweful at first as I know the amp needs a very long break in, but so far, I am very pleased. I will be playing music through the amp continuously for the next few weeks and occasionly use one of my equipment burn in cd's. The amp will never be powered off, as I always leave my amp, pre and digital on all the time.
I still can't believe I got so much amp for such a paltry price (by high end standards). Kudos to Klaus and the entire Odyssey family.
Bob
