odyssey amp's how do they compare to others

Here is my $.02. I will likely some day end up with a pair of stratos monoblocks. Because the hype intrigues me so much and because several people on audiogon who I think know their business love them. Since I was pretty close to buying a pair I contacted two people who had already sold theirs on audiogon figuring this is a good way to get the other side of the picture. One person said he thought they sounded ordinary in his system and he tried to post a three star evaluation on audioreview and for whatever reason they would not post it. The second said he in general found it equal to other amps in its price range. I have noticed that in reading the audioreview adds an awful lot of them are posted by people who are upgrading from really old midfi receivers/amps. Not a negative comment as I did the same not that long ago. I talked with Klaus once and agree he is refreshingly polite and helpful. I had hoped that they had a demo/loaner to try versus having to use a brand new unit and having to keep it on during its long burn-in and the guilt trip of returning it if not wanting it. I hope that someone here has had some of the great amps out there and this amp and can give a real world comparison. From the audioreview posts its hard to think this is not one great product.
Sorry to ramble.

A little over 1000 Psc. sold and close to 10% of them buyers ran over to audioreview and posted feedback. HUM... seems strange that we have amp mfg. that have sold 10% more then odyssey and be it a good or a bad review, their posting on audioreview dont even add up to .5%. And that just dont go for amps. Iam talking preamps, source, audioracks cables ect, ect,. fkb says maybe I should email the posters of the reviews!! Good point, If I was nyeve to the internet and did not know that 1 person could create multible email acounts, then perhaps I would. Now a new question comes into play from jetter's post "One person said he thought they sounded ordinary in his system and he tried to post a three star evaluation on audioreview and for whatever reason they would not post it." Is someone being paid off here??

Let me say this again I am not here to bash or discredit this amp, And I want to thank (Ton1313) I just took a trip to the Odyssey Forum and raed a few stings and have come to relize how this amp got so many reviews. It seems that there is a group of owners that talk back and fourth about many audio topics but I would tend to beleave that a major % of them own the Odyssey amp. So bringing all theses owners together would warrent the issue on the amount of post reviwes this amp has recived. Just still wondering why the X owner of the amp could not post his review that was not a 5 Star.

Another point on the Audioreview angle. 5 "overall" stars come pretty easily there. Klaus himself will admit that the monoblocks better the steroe Stratos and some of the Symphonic line amps better the monoblocks. Klaus himself will tell you that. So take all that with a grain of salt and realize all your seeing are happy customers trumpeting their product.

That said, the fact that nobody has posted less than five stars is rather amazing and to a certain extent ridiculous. As a stereo Stratos owner, I suppose I should go out there and put in 4 stars overall, 5 stars for value.

As an addition to my previous post I would like to clarify that to be honest I cannot remember if the individual said that audioreview "did not" or "would not" post his review if this difference is relevant.

Btw, if you read the reviews (at AR and elsewhere, I went back and re-read them because of this thread) one of the points that comes through many times is customer support, and Klaus himself.

Although I did not buy the Stratos, I spoke with Klaus on a couple of occasions and he came across as a very knowledgeable, pleasant, and straight-forward person to deal with.

When you buy a product, you are in effect buying a small piece of the company that makes it. There's no worse feeling than feeling abandoned by a manufacturer, and conversely feeling that the manufacturer will stand behind an item you just put good money down for will certainly increase that item's 'value' as well as overall satisfaction.

My understanding is that Odyssey is quick to remedy consumer issues. This is the kind of behavior that leads to a very loyal customer base. One of the reasons I bought Rogue amps was that I saw a similar type of feedback on the company and its owner.

KP