[tommystery]

As many of you have read, 600+ views on my old thread, I unknowingly purchased a grey market ODL Stratos.  After using it for about half a year it went up in smoke about a month ago when my preamp sent a clipping signal to my amp.  (Klaus says that there were some incorrect resistor values on the ODL board.)

In any case; a month later, after taking about 3 weeks to pack and ship the amp to Klaus he took a look at the amp and offered to rebuild it from the ground up.  Considering that this is not his product he could have easily washed his hands and said, "ok, and?  If you want to purchase one of my amplifiers I'll be more than happy to build you one.  Please refer to the order page on www.odysseyaudio.com"  But he didn't, he repaired the amplifier, gutted everything from the inside, replaced the cables, caps, faceplate, put in a new red board, and offered me a 20yr warranty from the date of shipment.  (Friday)

All I want to say is; Klaus, Thank You for your excellent service and support, as well as keeping that family feeling to a company which is quickly growing.

Sincerely,
Robert P.

[Kevin Haskins]

That is an excellent story..... Good job Klaus.   That will keep people coming back for more.

[Whitese]

Klaus, you softy..!

[Eric]

Thats always been Klaus's MO. Customer service is number 1 with him

[LadyDog]

Thats always been Klaus's MO

Agreed!  Definately one of the good guys in the audio business.

[Sonny]

Well, that's consistent with my dealings with the man!!!  Very nice and wonderful to deal with...ALWAYS ensures that you have the latest and looks out for the audio wallet too! 

I've owned the Tempest Extreme w/ remote and the Mono Extremes....I am extremely happy with tha man, my only concern is that not all other dealers / manufactures are like KLAUS!!!

Thanks K!

[Haoleb]

I am extremely happy with tha man, my only concern is that not all other dealers / manufactures are like KLAUS!!!

Thanks K!

If every manufacturer and dealer out there was like Klaus there wouldn't be anyone to set the standard 

[tommystery]

So, I got the amp back last night; I love the blue LEDs BTW, I plugged it in and it sounded somewhat restricted to what I remembered my ODL to sound like. (Keep in mind that the amp was physically cold)

Anyway, I turned it on, and have left it on for about 24 hours now - it's played music for about 6 of those hours when I wasn't home yesterday. I'm playing music as I'm writing this review right now and all I can say is "Wow... what a change."  I always thought that the "Burning-In Process" was BS, I guess that I've been proven wrong.

The highs were harsh, clinical almost, now they've subsided a bit.  The soundstaging was horrible yesterday and now it's improved dramatically.  It seems like this amp also has a much better control of the bass; this might be due to the 120 000uf upgrade I did.  According to the manual that Klaus sent me it'll take approximately 2-3 weeks for the amp to fully burn-in.  I can't wait to see what it will sound like in 2-3 weeks.

I'll keep you guys updated.

Also, I have a question for you guys.  When my amp was an ODL, it had a HT-2 sticker on it.  Klaus was nice enough to remove the sticker and put the "STRATOS" decal on, however there's some glue remaining from the sticker.  Is there anything that I can clean this part with, without taking off the decal?

[Wizard454]

Tommystery
I use WD40 to remove glue residue left when you take price tags etc. off of metal or plastic surfaces and it does a great job. However, I have never tried this where a decal was also present. If the glue is merely close to and/or around the decal it's self then I would try a little (very little) WD40 on a Qtip. Bare in mind that WD40 is a petroleum based product and can leave a residue of it's own and depending on the color of your face plate it may be visible. I have found in the past that the WD40 residue can be removed by polishing with a soft, dry, clean, white cloth.

Hope this helps.

[tommystery]

Hmm... before I try this method I'm wondering if anyone has tried it on a black odyssey.  I might spray some on the back somewhere and see if it has any effect with the black finish.  I doubt it would, although I'm not so sure about the decal.

[lazydays]

So, I got the amp back last night; I love the blue LEDs BTW, I plugged it in and it sounded somewhat restricted to what I remembered my ODL to sound like. (Keep in mind that the amp was physically cold)

Anyway, I turned it on, and have left it on for about 24 hours now - it's played music for about 6 of those hours when I wasn't home yesterday. I'm playing music as I'm writing this review right now and all I can say is "Wow... what a change."  I always thought that the "Burning-In Process" was BS, I guess that I've been proven wrong.

The highs were harsh, clinical almost, now they've subsided a bit.  The soundstaging was horrible yesterday and now it's improved dramatically.  It seems like this amp also has a much better control of the bass; this might be due to the 120 000uf upgrade I did.  According to the manual that Klaus sent me it'll take approximately 2-3 weeks for the amp to fully burn-in.  I can't wait to see what it will sound like in 2-3 weeks.

I'll keep you guys updated.

Also, I have a question for you guys.  When my amp was an ODL, it had a HT-2 sticker on it.  Klaus was nice enough to remove the sticker and put the "STRATOS" decal on, however there's some glue remaining from the sticker.  Is there anything that I can clean this part with, without taking off the decal?

You really gotta give the amps about 300 to 400 hours to get the best sound out of them. Each time I thought I was there Klaus said they aren't ready, and boy was he right. I broke my amps in using a tuner / preamp from B&K (I just didn't want all thouse hours on the tubes in the Quicksilver preamp I was using at the time). But did break in the Candela with the monos.
    I don't know about everybody else here, but I (personally) would be interested in a comparison between your older amp and the new amp once they are all broken in. I think I already have an idea, but I think it still would be interesting.
gary

[Wizard454]

Tommystery
Hello again.
Please note that I never meant to advocate "spraying" WD40 on your face plate, sorry if that's the impression I gave you. I should have been more precise in my wording.
Put a small amount of WD40 on a clean white (non-coloured or died) cloth or a small amount onto a Qtip and work around the decal to remove any glue residue. It would be advisable to (say you said already) try this procedure on the back of the unit first to insure no staining and/or WD40 can be removed completely as well.

[tommystery]

@ lazydays; unfortunately the ODL is the unit that went back to Klaus after it went up in smoke.  He gutted it and rebuilt it into an odyssey.  The comparison would have been interesting.

@ wizard; I'm sorry if I made it seem as if I understood that you meant to spray it.  I was going to use a q-tip.

Also; is it pointless to leave the amp on for burning in if it isn't playing?  I don't plan to keep it on after 24/7 after I'm done burning it in.

[carusoracer]

Read you instruction manual...

I found that if I did turn my Amp off for vacation,etc it took a good 6-8hrs for the caps to recharge and this was playing music not just turned on.