odyssey amp's how do they compare to others

I seem to remember a review in The Absolute Sound last year where they compared the Stratos to similarly priced amps from Rotel and B&K. I think they liked all of them for different reasons and I don't remember any one being a strong front runner.

mine was loud but lifeless no musicality try tubes

I had the Stereo Stratos with Symphonic cap upgrade, and thought they sounded excellent. Going to the monoblocks with Symphonic cap upgrade placed them in a whole new league, and now the latest upgrade with Plitron transformer makes them significantly better - well worth the 500 bucks, and the blue backlighting is very classy.

Some of the pioneer tuners are starting to be recognized as top tuners, where before they were asleep. I know someone is going to differ with me, but I never could stand pioneer products (personal experience). What people seem to judge things by (not discluding myself), are not fool proof formulas. I am trying to enjoy what I have, so I can focus on school.
There doesn't seem to be a way of measuring sound, yet there are these percieved differences, that do make a difference to me, but because I may not know as much as I seemed to have thought that I did, I tend to get caught up in a lot of hype and not knowing which direction to take.
I never heard the Odyssey, but I tend to write it off as
something within it's price range. A $600. tuner (Luxman T 117) at TIC stood above tuners costing many $$ more. A $1200. (now $400. used) Sony 333es made stereophile class A, where players costing way more weren't even mentioned. Still the reviews at Tuner Info center were someone's own subjective views. Still I see that it is hard to not pass things by, because they do not cost as much. It is confusing. I just am trying to enjoy my system, and I really do like it. I would love to hear an odyssey stratos after reading these threads. I also get real good feelings about some McCORMACK products.

The T117 was an average sounding tuner with very good sensitivity and selectivity. The audio sound performance was just average though. This tuner, like so many on the market, employed the standard do-it-all op-amps in the audio section yielding the standard op-amp results (thinness and haze).

The Pioneer 9800, on the other hand, was an excellent sounding tuner. It also had all the sensitivity and selectivity of T117 but with much better sound. Full, extended and no haze, grain or thinness. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was selling mine. I have had many tuners and the Pioneer 9800 was my favority. I still look for one on the used market but to no avail.

So Pioneer does, and did make some nice products but they are few and far between. I don't think the 9800 tuner would have drifted off to sleep if Pioneer had made it longer. They were in such a hurry to cash in on the digital craze and, of course we were the loosers.

Sorry to get off the subject of Odyseey and McCormick. Both of these amplifiers are highly lauded and, in some iteration, are still in production. I don't think either of these will drift off to sleep anytime soon. Digital amplifier technology may eventually threaten their sales but I doubt emerging analog technology will render them to the flea markets since this technology in amplifiers has historically moved very slow.