Odyssey Stratos, McCormack DNA 225 or Bryston4BST?

Well, Hammergjh, Canucks0 never mentioned Hafler in his short list so I guess it took you to bring those up. And I gotta agree with you - 'cause the Odyssey is in the den and the DH-500 is in the "large room". Yeah, the Haflers are older gear, but my ears are getting older too so maybe that's why I still like them so much. And if you look at the typical EBay, etc. prices for proper vintage Hafler amps vs. these three - I would also lean toward another Hafler. It's been rock-solid, has plenty of capacity to drive whatever I have, and I still think it sounds wunnerful - at least to me, YMMV.

And Canucks0, if I liked the Odyssey at the lower price, I'd love the Hafler and all the content I could buy with the difference in prices. I don't find the Odyssey thin or lacking or anything like that, but a clean 250W-per Hafler still gets the #1 nod even after all these years. Good luck with your decision!

Odyssey Stratos are great, but make sure the SP16's output impedance is low enough to drive the Stratos' 10kOhms input impedance. A great convenience is that Klaus can modify your Stratos in several stages for not much money.

I would also suggest to investigate the smaller McCormack DNA-125, a sleeper and one that Steve McCormack can modify to be at the top of the amplifier heap.

Thanks to all of you for the great insight and opinions. To Vladamir, since I'm not a 'techie' but rather just like great sounding music, does the following suffice for the AR SP16L to drive the Stratos?

OUTPUT IMPEDANCE: 260 ohms Single Ended main; 20K ohms minimum load and 1000 pF maximum capacitance. Outputs (3): 2 main, 1 record (Single Ended RCA connectors).

just call klaus-even if you buy a used unit he will answer your questions-

best time is after 6pm eastern time

Even if AR recommends 20K ohms as a minimum amplifier load (Stratos is 10K), the SP16's 260 ohms seems just about low enough (the old rule of thumb is to multiply it by 50), but it is good advice to call Klaus as Polara says, he's very helpful.