Value King Klaus of Odyssey Audio was ruling from his roost high above his cheering subjects here at AXPONA, repeatedly slamming his warhammer of audio awesome into the sides of the Beast of Status Quo.
If you haven’t been following along, Odyssey has won several awards from TAS and others over the sound-by-the-pound value the brand offers. Srsly. It’s a thing, kids. Odyssey is the real deal.
The trick with Klaus is to actually call him. Or, failing the ability to let your fingers do the walking, you could just show up at a show like … say … AXPONA … and talk to the man-myth-legend. Don’t get freaked out by the sheer size of the man. He’s man and a half. But listen to him when he says “tell me your budget, and lets see what we can do.” Again, srsly. What he’ll do is rebalance the equation of performance-to-value, right there, and come up with a solution that will knock your hair back. That’s bespoke audio.
Mind = blown.
Atop the rack squatted Klaus’ new baby, a VPI Avenger. Man oh man, does he love that thing. Ask him about it and he starts bouncing on the balls of his feet. He’s remarkably agile.
An Odyssey Audio Candela tube-input preamplifier fed into a pair of Kismet monoblocks (200 watts into 8Ω), with Groneberg cables running between and betwixt. A pair of Klaus’ 89dB Lorelei loudspeakers (Scanspeak drivers, with a nominal 6Ω load) were our door.
A door unlocked with the key of imagination. Beyond it was another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. We moved into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. We’d just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.
That’s when the lasers hit.
The laser/light show, a new addition to the rotation, was full on display (as promised, I went and bought my own projector — because every listening event is infinitely better with stars). The lights went down, the lasers went up, the crowd went wild, and out came the tabs of brown acid and we all promptly lost a year or two down the rabbit hole.
I jest. But it was fun, nonetheless. Mind = blown. Incredible stuff, this guy is making. By the way — the whole system cost? Less than $10k.
Did I mention the word “value”? Yeah. That’s a good word. One to remember. When you’re ready, find the door; Klaus is going to be grinning somewhere on the other side of it.
