[BobC]

Martin Logan CLS IIz full range electrostatics. Also heavily modified by SONIC CRAFT.

As a fellow Martin Logan Owner....I'm curious what sort of mods did you have done to your CLSII's?  Cost and improvements made?

[mclsound]

$5000 on a single chassis Strato's??????

You could have got
-A fully recapped Krell FPB 600
-Mark Levinson ML-336
-Jeff Rowland Model 8Ti
-Pass Labs X-350.5

And when you wanted a change,sold them and get all your money back.
One day you will see what I mean

[underdawg]

based on you list of alternatives, having heard some of those, I agree money back probably, odyssey sound I would give the edge to based on ones I have heard, except maybe for the pass labs.odyssey amps sound so close to class a to me and i like there sound. With that being said I dont know if I could invest in 5000 dollar mod unless I was done amp shopping, and I think he probably wouldnt sell these for what he has in them even if someone offered it. I think its great he found what he could die with.

[underdawg]

by the way these are monoblocks so he paid 2500.00 per monoblock which is not out of the question. Lots of companies offer 2500 dollar mods, check the manufactures list here, there is quite a few 2500 mods,dont need to mention names.

[OSIB16]

Actually it was approximately $2500 per Stratos chassis. Also I will never want to sell these amps - THEY REALLY ARE THAT GOOD. They produce Living Instruments and People in Ghostly mid air. Soundstage is noticeably wider and deeper than the Stratos Extreme's. You don't hear them whatsoever. Last time I heard sound this 'REAL' is when I auditioned the 'MARK LEVINSON NO. 53' eight years ago.

$5000 on a single chassis Strato's??????

You could have got
-A fully recapped Krell FPB 600
-Mark Levinson ML-336
-Jeff Rowland Model 8Ti
-Pass Labs X-350.5

And when you wanted a change,sold them and get all your money back.
One day you will see what I mean

[Early B.]

I think it's a great investment. If I had the money, I'd upgrade all of my gear to the highest level. If the Frankenstratos monos were sold by Krell, Mark Levinson, Pass Labs, Jeff Rowland, etc., they'd cost several times more than the OP paid. With upgraded components, these monos can probably compete with any set of monos at any price. Obviously to the OP, resale value is irrelevant. What could he possibly replace them with? 

   

[OSIB16]

The Torroidal transformer wound 'entirely' with approx 100 Meters of WWW.ANTICABLES.COM speaker wire...



 

[OSIB16]

100% pure cotton sleeving on the Mundorf Capacitor jumper wires. They are actually black shoelaces.

[teetee]

Just 'one' of those Black Gate's mounted on my Stratos PCB now has a market value of $400.00 (DOLLARS!).


What is the value of the Black Gate and N type or Nx?

[underdawg]

All black gates have gone up my musical design preamp had 2 at 1000 bucks eac - the muse ones, the others are going up in price quickly also. Some companys still have the muse types and let them go for 500 each, but supply is disappering.

[lazydays]

Lazydays,

     I am not selling these, nor do I ever intend to sell them at any stage. I bet my Modded Stratos Mono's will smoke the Kismet, and I know that it definitely blows away the Conrad Johnson 140 for that matter. I've heard the Conrad's already, the Modded Stratos is significantly more holographic and in the room. Much higher grade parts are used here - Neotech UPOCC copper wire and top of the range Black Gate and Mundorf Silver Oil Caps, compared to Groneberg OFC wire and Nichicon caps . Just 'one' of those Black Gate's mounted on my Stratos PCB now has a market value of $400.00 (DOLLARS!). Also there are no sockets (apart from one PCB surface mount RCA socket), everything is hard wired here, just look in the photo showing the the mains's cable soldered directly onto the torroidal transformer  The reason I paid near $5000 (Dollars) for the upgrade to my Mono's is down to the fact that the 'Stock' untouched STRATOS EXTREME MONO'S has one of the very finest FOUNDATIONS for building a 'Mega Amp' anywhere at any price. Basically you could call my amps GARY Mark 2's because they are a variation of them and the next level up. By the way Jeff Glowacki at SONIC CRAFT originally designed the GARY's all those years ago..

anytime you think you got the setup right, I'll do a side by side shoot out.
gary

[OSIB16]

Sounds good to me 

anytime you think you got the setup right, I'll do a side by side shoot out.
gary

[OSIB16]

I've got the following Black Gates in the FrankenStratos':-


(FOUR) BLACK GATE N 2200UF / 100V.

(FOUR) BLACK GATE N 470UF / 16V

(TEN)   BLACK GATE K 220UF / 50V


How much are these selling for now?

All black gates have gone up my musical design preamp had 2 at 1000 bucks eac - the muse ones, the others are going up in price quickly also. Some companys still have the muse types and let them go for 500 each, but supply is disappering.

[teetee]

N   2200uF   100V   30 x 100   lug   £149.27   CAP-9370
N   470uF   16V   16 x 24   radial wire   £9.47   CAP-9330

not sure this is the current price

[OSIB16]

That's the prices when they were first introduced into the market in the early 2000's Prices are 5 times that now.

N   2200uF   100V   30 x 100   lug   £149.27   CAP-9370
N   470uF   16V   16 x 24   radial wire   £9.47   CAP-9330

not sure this is the current price

[teetee]

I bought some black gate n type nx type and c type 11 years ago for my preamp and DAC mod.
No ideas they shoot up to 5 times.
Might still have some around

[rlee8394]

If I may ask, who wound the custom toroid and chokes?

Ron

[OSIB16]

Canterbury Windings here in the UK made/wound the transformers for me (exact replica of a Plitron), I just handed them a 350 METER spool of Anti-Cable speaker wire and they did the rest. The UPOCC copper inductors were wound especially for me by Mike at Odyssey Audio, these were a bit of a nightmare for me because I had to strip the PVC sleeving off a 5 meter length of it, then replace it with a thin sleeve of polyolefin heatshrink wrap.

If I may ask, who wound the custom toroid and chokes?

Ron

[Wolfman]

OSIB16-Very nice looking amps,there's a ton of interesting things inside of those. I wasn't sure if Klaus/Odyssey would consider them to still be "in the family" so to speak,but if Mike did your Tranny winding I assume they are.

Even the basic Stratos amp contains a ton of hand labor,there's no shortcuts inside of them,and these have at least another ton of hand labor on top with almost every inch of space filled. I hope they're as reliable as "normal" Odysseys,I'd hate to be the one that had to unravel/service them........ 

I find it very interesting as well that you seemed to stay relatively close to the basic design(as least as far as a non-techie like me can see),did you mention the power ratings/gain? I would've thought with power hungry Planers,you might've upped the trannies size,but apparently not,hmmm....

Since you like Class A,did you up the bias and do they run much warmer than the lukewarm Stratos?
Finally,I like how he mounted the trannies,what's the Purple material directly underneath them?

I would really like to hear them some day,but probably never will,good luck with them and enjoy! 

[OSIB16]

Thanks, I believe the new SINGLE custom transformer is 800 to 900VA rated so it's the equivalent of the 2 'combined' Plitron transformers (one stacked on top of the other) that Klaus provides in the EXTREME edition of this amp. The material underneath are two layers of flameproof SILICONE pads which also act as a kind of vibration cushion due to their slightly rubbery quality. Using an even larger torroidal transformer will just slow down the TIMING and RHYTHM of the music. The downside to stacking '2' transformers- one on top of each other is that you get an interference between the 2 magnetic cores. My amps run significantly hotter than the originals, that's what the mesh covers are for. Also I need to get them rebiased.

 

OSIB16-Very nice looking amps,there's a ton of interesting things inside of those. I wasn't sure if Klaus/Odyssey would consider them to still be "in the family" so to speak,but if Mike did your Tranny winding I assume they are.

Even the basic Stratos amp contains a ton of hand labor,there's no shortcuts inside of them,and these have at least another ton of hand labor on top with almost every inch of space filled. I hope they're as reliable as "normal" Odysseys,I'd hate to be the one that had to unravel/service them........ 

I find it very interesting as well that you seemed to stay relatively close to the basic design(as least as far as a non-techie like me can see),did you mention the power ratings/gain? I would've thought with power hungry Planers,you might've upped the trannies size,but apparently not,hmmm....

Since you like Class A,did you up the bias and do they run much warmer than the lukewarm Stratos?
Finally,I like how he mounted the trannies,what's the Purple material directly underneath them?

I would really like to hear them some day,but probably never will,good luck with them and enjoy!