Newport 2014: Odyssey Audio’s quest for affordable excellence
The new-ish Kismet towers are really souped-up stand-mounts with integrated stands, but excepting that lowest register, there’s a finesse that the Scanspeak drivers (with a beryllium tweeter!) put forth that leaves me a little out of breath. $4,000/pair, for this level of sound quality, and all I can do is shake my head. He can clearly charge more for them. He just … doesn’t.
I’ve mentioned it before, but Klaus is a bit of a tinkerer, which means that the configurations on the sheets are more suggestions than anything hard and fast. If you can offer up a particular budget, Klaus can nail it with the addition of some high-impact upgrades to the base models. Yes, this makes his Khartago amplifiers (prices start just under $2k for a pair of monos) a bit more custom than most brands would be comfortable with, but whatever. You’re going to get the biggest bang for the buck that Klaus can manage, and that kind of personalized service is inconceivable at just about any “mainstream” brand.
The entire system price, as demoed here at Newport, came in cleanly under $7k, and that included cables — you just need a source. As for racks, Odyssey has started offering their own. They’re not on the website, but a call into the big man will get you sorted. Prices, as with all things Odyssey, are almost perversely low.
The sound quality here at Newport was quite refined. Impact and dynamics were served up as paralleled entrees on the feast table. Klaus killed the lights to set the mood and then cued up a Scandinavian singer covering “The Rose” and another random sampling of some stuff I’ve never heard before. Imaging, in that center seat I managed to snag, was crisp and delineated, and I’m sure I was grinning before the first 3 bars. I can’t get over how good this system sounded. And yes, I mean “at that price”. Baffling. Just baffling.
You know what? Screw the “at that price” coda. The gear was outstanding. Period.
Thanks again, Klaus!
Well-done, Klaus!
I think some of the assembly hardware, e.g., is from China. . . ?
This is not to say I am not happy to see product built in the USA (I am), however, it is very difficult to source all of the materials domestically.
Klaus gets it, superior sonics at affordable prices, custom tailored for your specific needs.
http://odysseyaudio.com/Odyssey-furniture.pdf
Some information regarding the racks