old vs new

Well today is your lucky day, I owned all the pieces in your examples.. #1 SFL-1 was my least favorite tube preamp. I say look elsewhere, yes there are some newer units from small U.S. manufactures and other used units that are better in my opinion.. The mcCormack, good amp, solid state sound, not bad on the used market for 600 or so. Odyssey, is a better amp with higher quality parts from my experiance, sound is somewhat similar depending on what you feed it with preamp wise.. However WAY more power and control from the Odyssey. It is a super solid design, build quality is as simple and hiend as it gets realistically. But truth is a new Odyssey is still double the price of a used mcCormack so its a toss up. Try a used McCormack for cheap, and buy an odyssey on the 30 day trial, decide for yourself.. Worst case you either return the odyssey with a loss in shiping, or you sell the mcCormack for the same you paid. By the way, none of these or newer stuff has much of a Newer technology, but with a newer piece you will get more than likely better capacitors made today then were made 10 years ago, and they will last longer, but this is another thing that goes back to the odyssey thing, you will get a full 20 year warranty anyway.

So at the 1000.00 dollar mark, there are very good new items as are used.. At higher prices at lets say 2 k plus you then start to set apart New vs. Better stuff used. Specifically pertaining to the odyssey's, they are as good and use just as quality of parts as any Levinson, Pass, Krell etc.. In the 5 to 6 k range anyway.. They are the best A-B amp values today. You can find many reviews on all 3 of these items in the hundreds.

yes and yes...just buy from a good seller

A curve ball...which manufacturers are now outsourcing to China, when 3-5 years ago, they were building in the USA or the EU?

I don't know the answer, but it might be interesting to check!

I'm new at this + i'm not in the US, so have to be doubly certain of what I am doing. I dont have the luxury of buying and selling gear to get to that 'magic' sound.

I'm in the process of picking up a B&K st2140 from a good seller at audiogo. Have also invested in a Music Hall cd 25.2. My final upgrade will be to get a good preamp. You will probably laugh at my present system which consists of

Marantz cd-67 se
MF X-ACT
Onkyo P-301/M-501 for DIY MTM's
Yamaha AX-490 for two DIY passive subs
most importantly all the gear runs through a 2Kva serv stabilizer. And all equipment is isolated with DIY spikes.

for an 8 yr old system it still sounds very good compared to a lot of so called mid-fi systems i have heard

the question of better is very subjective. i personally consider some of the older tube amps and preamps much better than anything made today.

an example is the conrad johnson mv 125 amplifier. i have not heard anything better. i have attended ces and he shows and belong to an audio club. i would have a problem purchasing an amplifier in production in 2006--same for pre amp.

as for speakers, i still think the quad esl is ias good as it gets in the mids and treble.