Anyone heard the marsh and odyssey amps?

It's about satisfying your musical desires. There is no technology available today that can interpret what the human ear/brain hears and translate that into measurements. You can by a midfi receiver from Sears with distortion measurements of less than .01%, but will still sound like crap. Don't try to dismiss tubes because they add color. That's BS. If it makes the music pleasing to listen to so you want to listen to more, then the amp, whether tube or SS, is worthy of consideration. In most cases, the tube amp can do this better than SS, but not always.

Garyl, if tubes have colorations then why are you going to use a tube pre-amp. BTW garyl, it is nice to meet you. Hi J_c, I am sorry. I was not being cynical. I thought I was being funny. Thought wrong. It does not matter what I think about these amps. It is more important what you think of them. I have made the comparisons and came to a conclusion just like you. It is my opinion that ss is generally the one with colorations. Joe_coherent, I liked very much your review. I agree with much of it. It is that $8 $10 $15k thing I take issue with. IMO that statement might be a bit misleading. I have seen a posting of yours where you mentioned your system and it looks to be a great one. If nothing else J_c, I respect your opinion.

I purchased a set of Odyssey HT-2 amps thinking they would work well with my JM Labs. Boy, was I wrong. Fortunately the dealer allowed me to return them for a used ARC VT-130. Since then I've been listening happily ever after.

Some designers will "voice" their amps to achieve thier vision of what reproduced music should sound like. The Marsh is voiced "neutral". I think the goal with the Marsh was to design a powerful, affordable amp that was as transparent as they could make it. Based on the way REG and a few of the other contributors at Absolute Sound have been raving about this amp, it seems like they've succeded. TAS asks the question; How do you describe the sound of an amplifier that has no sound of it's own? Yes, the BC21 preamp will add it's own personality or coloration into the mix, but based on what I've heard of this preamp, I'm guessing the end result will be a totally satisfyig musicial system. Lots of experienced audiophiles tout the virtues of hybrid systems like this, but this is my first shot at it. Ultimately, all that matters is the sound, but trying out different combonations of gear can be fun, and is all part of the hobby. I do have to respectfully disagree about your statement that implies that it's SS gear more than tubes that color the sound. There's a whole legion of tube heads out there that have made a hobby of "tube rolling." Why do they keep experimenting with different tubes? Because each time you swap tubes, it changes or "colors" the sound in a certin way. Granted, not all SS amps are uncolored, but to say that SS colors the sound more than tubes is not true IMHO. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox and close by saying that I just learned that the Marsh is on back order until the first or second week of January! I didn't find out until after I mailed in my check yesterday. The dealer does have the Blue Circle BC22 in stock right now, and I'm tempted go with this instead. It's a little more expensive, but the build quality is in a whole other league than the Marsh, and it's been very well reviewed in the press. It would also be an almost guarenteed synergistig match with the BC21. I really want to try the Marsh, but I'm sure not looking forward to going another month without sound. Good Listening, Gary L

Excellent post Garyl, I wish you much success. We may disagree on the tube ss thing but that is audio. In the end I think we are searching for the same thing. The best sound we can put togeather. Good listening to you too.