Best Match for Dynaudio Contour S3.4?

Dpac - Haha I know what you mean! Time is never on our side... Thanks for the clarification on the speakers. I am using a Peachtree Nova as my preamp / DAC. And yes, have heard how hot that SA-102 gets. I don't live in Edmonton, eh? - and Philly summers are hot enough as it is. I have looked into the 100.2. Can't find anything bad about it. But still tempted by Klaus' slightly used supercharged Stratos Monos that he tells me are in the realm of Khartagos and Kismets.

I found a mint condition SA-102 in black that I can get shipped for $2400 from a dealer. Having my rservations about 1) the size (won't fit in my shelf space), 2) the heat in class A, and 3) your comments.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has paired the SA-102 with the Dyn 3.4 or 5.4. I agree they are similar, with the 5.4 being tougher to drive. This should mean that the 102 will sound better with my 3.4s than with your 5.4s.... but I dunno...tough one. I may just buy two or three amps so I can hear all of them and then sell the ones I don't like as much. But -- what a pain!! Trying to avoid that.

Tvad - RE: The Plinius modded amp, there was a modded P-8 that I think would have been perfect, but I was outbid at the last minute and lost out. P-8s are not easy to come by, let alone a P-8 that someone else already had paid to get modded by someone I know does a good job. So my idea was to buy an SA-100 for $1700 and pay $550 to have that modded by the same tech.

But the tech told me that the SA-102 had some features (primarily the beefier dual power supply, and the 25% increase in wpc) that would still outperform a fully modded SA-100 in terms of current and woofer control. So he recommended I try to find an SA-102 and use it for a while. Then, if I wanted some more performance out of it, I could send it to him. I thought this was a reputable and honest piece of advice, as there was no immediate business angle in it for him.

As I said in my prior post, I am very close to ordering the Odysseys AND the SA-102 and selling whichever I like least. Thanks again for your comments. This can be a frustrating process.

Odyssey amps come up used fairly regularly.

I owned a pair of Odyssey Extreme Monos with red boards.

Having spoken with Klaus on several occasions, I know that he can be very persuasive. I bought a used pair for slightly less than what he was proposing for a new pair. When I sold the Odyssey amps, I still lost a fair amount of money.

Just my experience.

...btw, the amps that replaced the Odyssey Extreme Monos in my system were Belles 150A Reference monoblocks. I thought they had better tonal balance than the Odyssey amps (which were a bit bass heavy, IMO), and both the highs and upper mids had less grain.

Eventually, the Belles amps were replaced with Pass Labs XA-60.5 monoblocks, which were another level above. Had I not changed loudspeakers, I'd still own the XA-60.5 amplifiers.