B&K ST2140 or Odyssey Stratos 150?

You are kidding yourself if you want to compare the type of performance of a Yamaha and some other mid-priced amps to an American made B&K!There is no contest!

I would say there are good Japanese made amps,but they are few!

Most B&K owner's I think would agree on this!I own a Modified ST-202 and I would not even consider selling it unless I needed more of something to drive a particular speaker!

Odyssey amps look and read nice and If you have auditioned them and they mesh well with your speaker's then by all means go for it!If you try B&K and they do well driving your speaker's for alot less go for them!

I have found that synergy between Spkrs. & Amps are a thing to closely listen to!Depending on the speaker's,synergy and how deep your pocket is depends on what to go after!

We all cannot own Krell',Liano's,Thresholds and megabuck amps,but we can get the synergy to get close to that performance for a fraction of the $$!

JMO!

I have owned the Stratos and while good value it is about what you pay for in a really nice chassis which is actually a waste of space in my opinion. The cap storage is small unless you get the upgrade and the highs simply aren't the cleanest I have heard under 2K. I would save a bit of cash on the chassis and put the $ where it would matter more. While it may still best the newer B&K (never heard it however), it is a good amp but nothing special to me. This is only my opinion. I had a used, fully broken in unit.

I agree with the older B&K being more musically satisfying as I owned the ST140 about 7 years ago and should have kept it but I thought newer was better at the time. I would go with a Belles 150A HR before the Stratos. I owned the 150a and liked it a lot. Heck, you could get a Marsh A200S as well which I had only heard at a dealer but I was impressed in the depth and soundstage, thinking it sold for much more. I almost bought it but I went back to a integrated amp.

Much obliged to everyone for your advice and suggestions. From what I gather from the posts, the two sounds are very differnet in nature, which helped me deciede for the B&K. Had the posts indicated one to be better in detail, soundstage, etc. over the other would have made choosing harder. Thank-you.

I'm not quite sure what twice as good means, but I have owned the ST-140 (not 2140), and the Stratos and they are in completely different leagues. The Stratos whipped it thoroughly in every category imaginable. My advice would be to get the Stratos with the cap upgrade if you can afford it. Like an earlier poster said, Klaus will bend over backward to satisfy his customers and it's resell value runs 85-90% of list. You can also upgrade to a dual mono design (same as monoblocks) down the road if needed.

Good luck!
Beez