I've been using a pair of Khartago Mono Extreme SE amps for 4-5 years. I live in Malaysia and Odyssey amps are brought in by a dealer. My preamp is the Tempest SLB.
This amp configuration has served me admirably well over the years. They have driven Magnepan 1.6, 1.7 and now .7 (currently in place) panels effortlessly.
Have been toying with the idea of buying a big-ass integrated amp later this year, from McIntosh or Mark Levinson, as a one-box solution. Then, I recalled the dealer having a pair of Kismet References Monos for sale, and convinced him to let me take them home for demo.
Five minutes after powering up these amps, all thoughts of big integrated amps went out of the window. The Kismets are more refined, quieter, cleaner sounding, better detailed and neutral, and the .7 pair sounded like they had more bass reach than previously. After picking my jaw off the floor, I told my dealer I'm keeping them. These are probably the last amps I will buy, and they've taken the overall sound from my system up a few levels. At half the cost of what I would have paid for a "branded" integrated!
The rest of my system includes the Tempest, an Ayon Audio CD-1s CD player and VPI Classic 1 TT with Dynavector XX2 MKII cartridge. Will spending the money I saved on upgrading the sources.
That's all for now... just sharing my Khartago to Kismet experience.
