Odyssey Audio. Khartago Mono Extreme SE.
Some of you probably noticed the rave review of the Odyssey Khartago (stereo version) in the Absolute Sound in late 2009. When I read that review I was intrigued but frankly a little voice inside me said 'don't believe the hype.' Well, I took the Nestea plunge and ordered the Khartago monos, deluxe version. Delivery took several weeks. This is an artisanal, made in the USA affair. Demand is high. These amps disappear within hours when they (rarely) appear on Audiogon. To buy new, you phone Klaus Bunge in Indianapolis. Klaus will ask you to describe your system. He can bias the amps to match up with your speakers, if you wish.
I will probably keep my low-powered Almarro single ended pentode amp, which I love. These new muscle amps replace my recently departed Naim system. The Odyssey monos cost just a little over 2k, taxes and shipping in. The Naim gear was considerably more expensive. The pre-amp/DAC feeding the Khartagos is the fabulous Burson HA 160D. The sources are a Marantz SA8003 SACD player, a Marantz CD5003 cd player, a Pro-Ject RPM 10/Dynavector 10x5/Graham Slee Era Gold Reflex. The speakers are the amazing Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 and Magnepan MMGs.
Feeding my Harbeths, the Khartagos wipe the floor with the Naim. They have almost as much PRAT. But they have so much more dynamic swing. They can stop on a dime. They can roar. Or they can be ultra-quiet. They are slightly warm, as befits a high-biased class A/B design. They have 150 watts per side into 8 ohms, 120 amps of current, and more micro farads than you could ever imagine needing.
Odyssey has taken the best of solid state, with its ooomph, its speed, its ability to plumb the depths of the lowest octave and combined it with a tube-like warmth and spaciousness. These amps breathe. Voices carry in a tube-like, holographic way. Louis Armstrong's famous recording with Oscar Peterson has never sounded so immediate, so present. The music just flows naturally. Even as it gets louder, there is never any sense of strain. The body is always full. There is never any shrillness.
As I write this review, I am listening to "Here's that Rainy Day," from Gonzalo Rubalcaba's "Inner Voyage" cd. It's not so much the notes that you note, it's what's NOT between them--there is no noise. It is the black of night. LIkewise with a pristine pressing of Anton Kuerti's Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle--the utter silence in the slow passages of 'Moonlight' is astounding. Calvin Broadus' oeuvre has never sounded so organic. The digital edge is gone; somehow these beasts have tamed Dr. Dre's etchy mixing board. Glenn Frey's keyboards on "I Can't Tell You Why" sound so utterly rich and warm, a swirling, sweet undulating complex electric brew. And yet this is a simple tune that anyone could belt out in a few minutes on a piano. In short, these amps are lighting the music up from within, projecting it outward in the complete opposite manner of the flat-earth Naim approach. And yet...there is a pace, an addictive rhythmic quality to these amps. They boogie, but they do it with ease, if that makes sense.
But where they really shine is at the two extremes: simple chamber music or a jazz duo like Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny, as well as the big, bombastic Fritz Reiner conducting the Scheherazade (SACD RCA Living Stereo). The Odysseys' huge bandwidth does the SACD format justice. The sense of air being pushed has to be felt to be believed.
The amps sound fantastic after only 30 hours of playing. These are surely one of the best buys in audio, right up there with Magnepan. Speaking of which, finally I have the muscle I need to drive these power-hungry panels. Maggies sound great with tube equipment--I had great success driving them with a Primaluna Prologue One, with its 35 watts (but beefy, high-currrent transformers). The Odysseys lift the Maggies up where they belong. I can finally blast the Eagles' "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" without Frey and Leadon's guitars sounding bright. Maggies are known for their exceptional imaging qualities. The Odysseys help the Maggies put the band right in your room. My listening room is small--not quite 10 feet wide, 18 feet long, so I cannot really listen at punishing levels. But I don't need to try: the Odysseys have so much power on reserve, so much current, that at moderate levels they reveal all the nuance, all the dynamic swing you could hope for. With weaker amps one must sometimes listen louder than one would like in order to get the whole soundstage. Not so with the Khartago. They are pleasant at any volume level. There is no sense of fatigue at higher levels.
With a 20 year warranty and excellent customer service, this has got to be one of the best deals in audio. I give my two Odyssey amps two thumbs up. Alright, that's all folks. Until next week, the balcony is closed.
