Are Monoblock s worth it?


Would like your collective Wisdom on the subject of Monoblocks. I have a single Odyssey Stratos and the cost to convert to Mono's are not that much additional. However, I do not play my existing system at very high levels and almost never turn the volume beyond half-way (normally around 11:00). Is this an advisable upgrade? I know that I theoretically should have more dynamic headroom, but I do not know how this translates into real world listening.

System:

Maggie SMGa (soon to be Newform R645's in next week or so)
Morrison Elad pre-amp
Cambridge Audio CD500-SE

Musical taste - 50% Classical Symphonic, 30% Classical instrumental and 20% rock/pop
sibelius

Showing 2 responses by sibelius

Thanks for all the great feedback!

As ususal with this forum, an initial question brings out an furthur inquiry.

It seems, from all the above, that 2 AMP's will definately have a beneficial impact. My new question is are there any advantages in going to a vertically BI-AMPed model (using 2 stereo AMP's) instead of just with a dedicated Mono block configuration?

It will cost me the same $'s to do both. The only difference is I would need to send my existing Amp in to be reconfigured for Mono's while I could just order a new Stereo Odyssey to Vertical Biamp.
Sedond - thanks for the clarification. I will probably give Klaus a call on Monday. It looks like the "hi-fi bug" has claimed another fool hardy victim in search for the holy grail of audible nirvana.