[ricardojoa]

Hi all,

just wanted to know what do al those upgrade, plus and extreme do sonically?

Thank you

[JCarney]

Hi ricardojoa,
The sonic improvements between the extreme version mono's, and the glass ceiling version mono's to my ears are definitely distinguishable. The Mono Extremes were the best I had ever heard in my system. The GC's are better. I would say around 15% or so. Over all sound in my opinion? Well balanced, good control over the drivers, even those pesky big ones, and very good detail, bordering on great. The Odyssey's tend to be a little on the warm side, but not overly so imo. Some say leave them on all the time, especially Klaus, to get "the best sound". I tend to disagree. If off for several days, like anything, they will sound a bit better after warmed up. With daily use, I turned them off at the end of the day. Like anything, they have their trade offs, just depends if you are willing to live with those trade offs. For the new price, they punch out of their weight class. And, Klaus is nuts, in a good way. You will love working with the guy, his energy can be infectious.

Hope this helps,
JCarney

[lazydays]

My first monos were simply standard Stratos monos, but I had them upgraded to the Extreme mode. The sound was better for sure. Then Klaus and I put our heads together due to a disaster at my house, and he completely rebuilt my two amps into what he labled them as the "glass ceiling" in my living room. These were the first ones he'd done, but he had also done another mod he called the "gary mod", but refused to do another. As I uderstand it they were too expensive and time consuming to warrant the effort. Now back to the glass ceiling amps. We simply plugged them in and maybe gave them ten minutes to warm up. Two of my sons were also with us when we fired them up, and both knew exactly what the old amps sounded like. The disc was from Joan Osborn (Relish), and of course Klaus was cranking the amps at about 105 db.!! Plaster was ratteling off the walls and I said to myself that these amps were killers. They just didn't begin to sound like the older ones! Much greater extention in the bass alone, but what I really caught was the upper end transparency. I could hear the reeds rattle on another disc that I never knew was there. I heard John Lee Hooker drop his pick on the floor! Then Klaus goes over to one of my CD racks and turns to say "you like Miles davis?" There was a row of about 30 discs, and we commenced to show how Miles would have wanted it to be like. Now you must under stand that these amps had less than two hours on them at the time! The caps were no where to close to being charged, and we couldn't overdrive them. Over the next few days and even weeks they started to develop a groove that just kept leaving me dumb founded. By Christmass things had taken a new direction. Friends dropped by Christmass night, and one asked what was new in the LP department. I pulled out a virgin copy of Bitches Brew, and we literally turned the world upside down! Jaw dropping to say the least. Everybody was simply stunned at what they were hearing. I was just grinning as I knew it was going to get better.

I honest have never heard the Kissmet amps, so can't compair them to anything. But I compair amps to my alltime favorite amps. That would be Conrad Johnson Premier ST 140's. I still like the 140's better, but I could also buy four glass ceiling amps for what a pair of them cost. Compaired to the big Parasound amps they simply smoke them! Same with PS Audio and some others (Krell comes to light). Or a better way to put it is that had Klaus took out a full page add in Stereophile, these amps would have been at least rated B+ and maybe A for less than $3K a pair.
gary

[stereo5]

Gary said it just right.  Let me also say this, if Odyssey was sold through a dealer with distributors, the prices would be 3 times what they are.  You really get a bargain with Odyssey

[lazydays]

The first time Klaus visited my place with the glass cieling amps he scared me to death! He walks over to the CD rack and starts going thru them row after row. I thought "Oh My God" what's he thinking of my music selections. He's actually kinda layed back like I am. We played several discs, and just had a good time.

I seriously don't think it's fair to compair the Stratos SE with the GC amps. They sound that much different. For me they were like something from a different product line. Never been able to seriously tax them. And trust me I've pushed them really hard more than once. Actually most CD's do not do these beasts justice, and they don't start to show up till you at least do SACD or better yet an LP.
gary