[geowak]

Got a tip that a company from Germany makes a line of amps. Has anyone ever heard one?
Are they any good? Are they designed just like the Odyssey equipment?

[craig223]

I have a Symphonic Line power amp.  It is wonderful.  You will not be disappointed.
Craig

[Marbles]

I have not had an integrated, but I have had  RG4's, RG1's and Kraft 400's (Top Of The Line special order only now) amps.  The Odyssey amps started off as Symphonic Line RG11's (IIRC), but are made in America and sold for about 1/3 the Symphonic Line price.  Herr Germain (Symphonic Line) is known to keep the same basic amp design but tweak it.  Klaus Bunge (Odyssey) is doing the same thing with the Stratos line.  

I have had Odyssey Stratos, mono's and HT3's.  As you go from Stratos to mono's you get a less strident top end and more control on bass.  As you go from Odyssey mono's to full Gary mono's to say the RG4's, you get a more liquid sound and more bass control.  When you get to the Kraft 250 mono's or the 400's, it would be very difficult to improve....from any SS amp in the world (my opinion).  They (with a well paired pre) are just effortless and organic.

If you ask Klaus, and I have, the Odysseys are pretty darn good, but the Krafts are better.

Klaus is the North American, South American and Asian distributor of Symphonic Line and the owner of Odyssey.

[lazydays]

I have not had an integrated, but I have had  RG4's, RG1's and Kraft 400's (Top Of The Line special order only now) amps.  The Odyssey amps started off as Symphonic Line RG11's (IIRC), but are made in America and sold for about 1/3 the Symphonic Line price.  Herr Germain (Symphonic Line) is known to keep the same basic amp design but tweak it.  Klaus Bunge (Odyssey) is doing the same thing with the Stratos line.  

I have had Odyssey Stratos, mono's and HT3's.  As you go from Stratos to mono's you get a less strident top end and more control on bass.  As you go from Odyssey mono's to full Gary mono's to say the RG4's, you get a more liquid sound and more bass control.  When you get to the Kraft 250 mono's or the 400's, it would be very difficult to improve....from any SS amp in the world (my opinion).  They (with a well paired pre) are just effortless and organic.

If you ask Klaus, and I have, the Odysseys are pretty darn good, but the Krafts are better.

Klaus is the North American, South American and Asian distributor of Symphonic Line and the owner of Odyssey.

I had regular Stratos Mono Blocs, and did the upgrade to the SE version. The difference was asstounding! I then did the so called "Glass Ceiling" upgrade, and the difference was astounding again. All three amps have little in common with the sound signature of the other two. Then you move up to the Kissmet series that take the amps up the ladder a little higher yet. Where these amps fall in with the German ones I don't know, but know they'll run with just about anybody out there's big dogs. I've yet to hear a pair of amps that'll run with the Glass Ceiling amps, but I sure somebody's got a $10K+ amp that will.

   The one thing you have to remember about those big mono blocs is that they are a means to an end of the constant upgrade path. Once you've hit the ceiling you get very little more for a lot of change invested. The one thing I'd really be interested in is how much better the Kissmet preamp is than the Candella. All data so far is a little sketchy, and for me a mystory. Still I find that power is always the deciding factor for me. I'm more into what the sound is like than five hundred watts. These are the most stable amps built, and you just can't over drive them! Never get in the way of the music. I like to think of them as something like top of the line Accuphase amps on steroids, but with a much more open high end and tighter bass controll.
gary

[Christof]

I own a Symphonic Line that I picked up from Marbles a while back, I think it's an RG4 mounted in a special enclosure designed by Klaus.  I use it alongside an Odyssey Dual Mono to bi amp a pair of Selah's.  Before the Symphonic Line & Dual Mono's I bi amped with two Odyssey Khartago's.  This amp was a big step up from my previous Khartago amps.  The RG4 is dead quiet and matches beautiful my Candela pre.  I can only imagine that the integrated would be a wonderful piece of equipment.  There is or was a very special Odyssey Stratos integrated floating around here....Ladydog had it for sale not too long ago, might be something to look into.