Long time lurker here, but registered today so I could give some feedback on my new Kismet amps...
My odyssey with Klaus and Odyssey began back in March when he built me a set of Stratos Mono Extreme SE "Glass Ceiling" amps. Odyssey was my first foray outside of a traditional (brick and mortar) audio salon - so there was definitely some trepidation on my part about going with Odyssey. I had just taken delivery of a pair of Magnepan 3.6R's (replaced my Thiel CS 3.6's) and was looking for amplification to drive them. I was initially drawn to Bryston, but Odyssey kept coming up in threads I read on Audio Asylum, so I did some more research and ultimately decided to go with them. The GC's were in a different zip code than the Bryston 4B SST I was auditioning at the time, and also better than my current (at the time) Threshold T200 as well as my father's Ayre V3. For reference, the main components of my system are as follows:
Maggie 3.6R speakers (with Mye stands)
dCS Delius DAC (also functions as my preamp)
Meridian 500 transport
REL Stadium II sub
When I started reading threads here about Kismet, I decided to give Klaus a call and see what it was all about... Needless to say, I (like many of you) was really wondering if going the Kismet route was really worth it since I already had the GC's? Klaus said it was a "no brainer" in the case of my system, so I decided to take him at his word based on the great experience I had with him earlier this year. My Kismet's showed up last Saturday and have been playing 24x7 since they arrived (thank you Squeezebox). Right out of the box they were smoother and fuller than my well broken in GC's! After nearly 100 hours of break-in on the clock, they also appear to have better bass as well as more solid and three dimensional imaging. I say "appear to have" because we all know Odyssey amps need
a lot of time for proper and complete break in. I just got off the phone with Klaus and expect things to continue to improve/change over the next 300 hours of break in...
For those of you coming from Stratos Mono Extreme's, Mono Extreme SE's, or even GC's - the
significant improvement you might write off as not being possible/attainable within reason (price) certainly does exist, and Kismet proved that in my book
P.S. In case some of you were wondering what I'm doing with my GC's, a friend of mine has already offered to buy them off me... He's wanted a set since the first day he heard mine!
