Thanks for the link to the discussion on HD guys. That was interesting reading. The thing that i found most interesting was that Gary, who was the guy that had Klaus build these amps, was using some of the same equipment that i'm running in the system that i have here in my office i.e. EVS Millennium II upsampling DAC and Goertz MI-2's. I had the same preamp in this system that Gary was running ( Marsh P2000 ) but that didn't last too long for several reasons. Either way, i've got a good idea of the type of sound that Gary likes and a reasonable idea of what to expect from these amps going by that. This is encouraging to say the least.
After reading that, regardless of the "manufacturer hype" that is bound to come from anybody marketing a product, Klaus seems to be a pretty "straight up" guy with a very valiant sense of morals and business ethics. We need more guys like him in the industry and i hope that he continues to do well.
As mentioned, these amps are not for me but for someone that is interested in purchasing a set of speakers that are identical to a few sets that i have. Since these speakers are not all that common, they wanted to know if the Odyssey Extreme's would be up to the task. For those that are interested, the speakers present a nominal 1.2 - 3 ohm load and are about 82 dB's "in-efficient"
Needless to say, you need one helluva amp to deal with this type of a load and do it any type of justice. Since the speakers are so in-efficient AND such a low impedance, most amps are constantly switching between Class A and Class B mode of operation. While many "high bias" amps will run Class A up to 6 - 10 watts @ 8 ohms, this is only equivalent to 1.5 - 2.5 watts of Class A power @ 2 ohms. With such low efficiency, one has to throttle the amp harder than this to get decent SPL's, so crossover distortion starts entering the picture in a much more drastic fashion than with more efficient, higher impedance speakers. This is something that most people don't have to worry about let alone ever think about, but as you get into more "esoteric" ( read that as "finicky" ) loads, this is the kind of stuff that can make or break whether an amp is acceptable or not.
For sake of reference, i'm currently running modified Kinergetics KBA-202A Platinum mono-blocks with these speakers, which are rated at 250 @ 8 / 500 @ 4. I'm guessing that i've got about 850 - 1000 wpc @ 2 ohms ( give or take ). According to the manual, the first 50 watts run in Class A bias before switching over to Class B for increased efficiency / thermal reasons. This equates to appr 12.5 watts of Class A power @ 2 ohms, which is still more than what most "high bias" amps deliver into 8 ohms. As such, i can get reasonable SPL levels at my seated listening position while remaining in Class A for most stuff. Obviously, dynamic peaks go WAY above this level as i've actually measured peaks at over 900 watts with these speakers. You can't do that for very long though if you want them to survive
Judging from what i've been able to find out about the Oddysey amps, i think that i've got a bigger transformer in each monoblock than what Klaus is getting by doubling up on the transformers that he's using in terms of total KVA rating. Having said that, he's got WAY more filter capacitance in his units, which is a good thing. That is, until something goes wrong
Either way, i'll be adding more capacitance to my amps in the very near future.
I do appreciate the help that you folks have given me, especially those that took the time to contact me directly. I'll try to give Klaus a call on Friday, but from what i can tell, these amps should work out pretty well with this type of speaker. Sean
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