TAS 195: Odyssey Audio Khartago Stereo Amplifier

Good Enough

For the past six months I’ve been using the superb $40k Soulution 710 stereo and $115k 700 monoblock solid-state amplifiers from Switzerland in my system—the latter the same amp with which Magico triumphantly debuted its M5 speakers at CES this past January. I’ll be reviewing the Soulution electronics in an upcoming issue, but I can already tell you they’ll get a rave. I’ve never heard any amplifier, tube or solid-state, as low in noise and high in transparency as these Swiss numbers. With a suitably transparent speaker like the MartinLogan CLX or the Magico M5 and a suitably transparent front end like the Walker Black Diamond or the AAS Gabriel/Da Vinci (both fitted out with the Da Vinci Grandezza cartridge), it’s as if the electronics aren’t in the system. And their disappearing act makes the disappearing act of the front end and the back end that much more complete. That’s what transparency of this order buys you in an amplifier or preamplifier—less of the physical and electronic presence of all of your gear, more of the presence of the music, the musicians, and (sigh) the recording and mastering engineers.

Why am I talking about the Soulution amplifiers in a review of Odyssey gear? Because I heard about both from solid-state-amp connoisseur Alon Wolf of Magico. I wasn’t a bit surprised when he recommended the Soulution 700s—they cost a fortune and had a helluva reputation for excellence. But I was surprised when he suggested that I also give a listen to a little amp called the Odyssey Khartago. First of all, I’d never heard of Odyssey, though, as it turns out, the company’s been around for a decade, and second…well, I’ll get to that in a moment.

“I’ve been using the Khartago in the factory for years,” said he, “to test loudspeakers. It isn’t a Soulution 700, but it’s…good enough.” Good enough for the Wolfman is good enough for me, thought I, and promptly called Klaus Bunge of Odyssey, who happens to be located a scant two hours away in picturesque Indianapolis, Indiana. A week or two later Klaus, a big bearded bear of a man, drove down to Cincy with a Khartago and a pair of Stratos monoblocks in hand—both hands, actually. (Though I won’t have the space to talk specifically about the Strati, you can take it for granted that everything I say about the Khartago goes double for Odyssey’s monoblocks.)

Bunge has been importing German hi-fi into the United States for better than twenty years. Indeed, throughout the eighties he almost single-handedly put the German electronics company Symphonic Line on the map. In the late nineties, he decided to offer a more “cost-effective” line of amps and preamps in addition to his pricey imports. Somehow he managed to talk the folks at Symphonic Line into supplying him with the same circuits it used in its amps, which Klaus then builds, stuffs, tweaks, sticks in handsomely finished custom-made anodized-aluminum boxes, and sells factory-direct. (All this work is done in the good ol’ U.S. of A.) The Khartago, for instance, has specs that are nearly identical—as they should be, considering they use virtually the same boards—to those of the celebrated Symphonic Line RG-1 Mk IV. Both output 115Wpc into 8 ohms; both have a bandwidth that extends out to 400kHz; both have high damping factors, exceptional slew rates, and oodles of current. The only thing they don’t share is price. The Symphonic Line RG-1 Mk IV is currently $6800; the Odyssey Khartago costs $799.

Yep, you’re reading that right: $799. That was the second reason I was surprised by Alon Wolf’s suggestion. When a guy with his champagne taste recommends a beer-budget amplifier like this one, you tend to pay attention.

Apparently, eliminating the distributor and retailer and selling factory-direct pays some pretty handsome dividends to Odyssey’s customers. (See my interview with Klaus for details.) Of course, the version of the Khartago that Klaus brought me didn’t cost $799. Since it had a better Plitron transformer, an extra bit of power-supply capacitance, and superior parts—three options among many (including Nichicon Muse caps, Vishay/Dale resistors, extra WIMA metal-film caps, custom colors) that Bunge offers, along with his standard twenty-yeartransferable warranty—it cost a whopping $995.