Classe 201 -vs- Odyssey Stratos

Hi, I received my Stratos amp w/ the cap upgrade in the middle of January. Right out of the box I was very impressed w/ its build quality. Very good connectors and casing. Even the feet are of very good quality. It is a very large and heavy piece of equipment. Don't underestimate this, you'll need a lot of rack space for this beast. I had a minor problem w/ my unit after a couple of weeks. It failed to power up. An internal soldered wire had come loose. I spoke to Klaus and he gave his okay to resolder the wire. It was easy and the unit works perfectly now. He was very upset this had occurred. He did seem genuinely concerned. No big deal, but it did happen.

Intitially I thought the sound of the amp was poor. Harsh and constrained. No kidding. Odyssey recommends 1 month of burn in. I believe it. I didn't want to judge this amp too harshly at first, so I burned it in w/ continuous music play for the recommended month. Nearly 24/7 play. Things didn't really improve for at least 3 weeks. But they did improve, significantly. After 1 month the unit sounded good. No complaints.

I'm replacing a 20 year old Hafler DH200. Frankly the two amps sounded similar. I found it hard to distinguish the two. Maybe my ears are lame, who knows. I'm considering keeping the Hafler and selling the Odyssey. I'm not sure what to do. I have no complaints about this unit. But it's not blowing me away. This could be due to my system, but the amp didn't improve things significantly over the old trusty Hafler. IMO, of course.

System: Denon DCM370 CDP
B&K Pt3 II pre
VandenHul d102 IC's
B&W CDM9 Nt's speakers

Hammergjh, sell the Stratos, buy some music!

I liked the Odyssey better then the Classe's mentioned above in monoblock form, mainly because I found the Classe too laid back and I'm not a fan of a 75th row seat, which simply annoyed me right off the bat! I found the Stratos more transparent through the midrange, handling vocals slightly better, but not rivaling the Classe in terms of bass power and articulation, nor its vast and deep soundstage which trounced the Odyssey. That said, in my expereince in my system, for the same or less money on the used market the PS Audio and Bel Canto Digital amps easily dispose of the Odyssey or the Classe amp in most regards (except most notably wrt build quality!)....

Confused by Socrates!!!

Your name is all over the place singing the praises of Odyssey more than any other poster on ANY site (I did my research before I ordered my odyssey DM!) Whats up with the about-face?

Are you one of those "I bought one, so (for now) its the best" kind of reviewers?

If this is not the case, let me know. If you are one of those people... stop reviewing equipment!!!

Socrates, isn't the Stratos supposed to have more bass than Classe? That's what the soundstage! review said:
"Weighty bass," "smooth and grain-free treble," and "a distinct lack of the upper-midrange glare often found in affordable solid-state products"; "what you have on your recordings is what you will get from your speakers -- provided they're up to the task."
stratos review

No need to be confused, just have an open mind! Time moves on, as does technology. I owned the Stratos for a long time and it bettered a lot of competition in my home, from well regarded Musical Fidelity to McCormack amps and many in between, hence the previous praise. I would suggest it to anyone for audition looking in the price range, but to believe that it is the "best" amp available is surely an argument that defeats itself!

I recently picked up a PS Audio HCA-2 and also have the Bel Canto digital amp in my home currently, both of which have impressed me like no others, especially the HCA-2. That said this is my opinion, one which I am at full liberty to change at anytime and for any reason. Gimme a break! I go through about an amp a month in home and hear many at dealers at all prices. Believe me, I don't post reviews to make you or other people feel secure about your purchase, or to boost my or anyone else’s ego, and if that's what you're looking for you should stick to mindless reviews on www.audioreview.com. I never boast about a product because I own it, but I will praise the product that I keep and give the reasons that I've kept it, relative to its competition, and I would never judge any product without having directly compared it to a similar product. Also, please realize that I do this all for myself, I don't review gear for other people (except my close audiophile friends via email), I sure as heck don't get paid for it (but I would welcome donations)! I have nothing at stake here but my time. I am a full blown audiophile, I'll admit that, and I'm having a lot of fun. My living room looks like a dealer’s showroom most of the time, with enough equipment lying around to build multiple systems. I enjoy reading, sharing and debating ideas with other audiophiles. I fully believe that if a reviewer cannot list both positive and negative aspects about every piece of gear that they audition then they either lack experience, perspective or credibility. I personally prefer to read honesty in a review, even when brutal, rather then sugar coated BS!

It's really sad that so few people are willing to actually say something less then glowing about a product online, hesitant to say anything negative as clearly, seemingly without exception, whenever one does speak their mind the owners of the product come out in droves to stone the messenger! It’s a lot of fun fending off tactless personal attack as well, let me tell you….

Cdc:

The bass weight of the Stratos was very impressive, its speed and articulation of inner detail, however, is lacking next to the big Classe monoblocks and the HCA-2.