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Hi Lugia, Ronin, All,

Coming back to this post regarding above mentioned Behringer & Arp Odyssey, the Behringer K-2 and a little on ASM Hydrysynth (desktop model).

Beginning of this week I had the opportunity to get to my local dealer and voila! There it was the Behringer Odyssey and the K-2, ready to test. I didn't had too much time but I had some quick looks and a short test on each of them. Here are my impressions:

Behringer Odyssey, well let's start again with the Arp Odyssey, personally I wasn't too impressed by it (scroll above to my post of the 1st of September). This time I tested the just new Behringer Odyssey. What a difference with the (new) Arp Odyssey! In a good way this time!

Let me start with the touch and feel of it, which is good, the switches are good to use and the (LED) sliders are quite nice to use too. The housing is made like a tank, there is pretty thick sheet- or plate-metal used and that's rock solid. I tried to lift up the Odyssey. The good news is that is possible but you can feel the heavy weight. For people who want to take it under their arm with them, it might be not so ideal but I actually like that kind of "build like a tank" feeling :-)

Then the sound, wow yes, that's some serious old, "fat" synthesizer sound, personally I like that. When I compare this one with the lately Arp Odyssey, I would definitely go for the Behringer edition and not Arp; sorry Arp. Here in Europe at Euro 449 it isn't too cheap (however compared to Arp it is) but for the fact that you get a "solid tank" with a good sound and switches and sliders that are nice to use, it might be worth it. Personally, the Odyssey is too deep for the space I have available left, so I have to let it go for the moment but will keep an eye on it. If there is ever a good special offer for it, I still might decide to get one.

Then the K-2... I got already the Neutron from Behringer and I am actually very positive about the Neutron. So when I tested the K-2 I just couldn't believe it... in my opinion the K-2 is beating the Neutron, it's beating it with ease! My goodness, what a lovely little synthesizer that is. Now I don't know the original Korg MS-20 (because that's what the K-2 is, a kind of replica of it) sound but this K-2 has a sound that's beyond believing (for that price) and that puts the Neutron easily in its shadow.

If the Behringer Odyssey sound was kind of old fashion, nice, fat, sound, the K-2 doesn't sound "as fat" as the Odyssey but it has its own characteristic of sound that's, at least for me, close to unbeatable, what a lovely sound.

Then the touch & feel, for the housing that's very similar to the Neutron (and the Model D), however the knobs of the K-2, somehow I feel they are even better than the Neutron, or at least very similar/good as the Neutron.

So I definitely will consider the K-2, most likely I am going for that one. The only issue is... what would be a good and available(!) Eurorack convertor module to be used with the K-2 to make it Eurorack compatible? I think we started that discussion about the convertor module already earlier in this thread (somewhere up here) but if I remember well we didn't found an available module yet that would be suitable. Or is there an available convertor module that does?

Then I spoke with my contact at my local dealer about the ASM Hydrasynth, not sure when that becomes available, let's hope in December but that seems not to be sure; at least not here in Europe. This guy I spoke with had tested for just a very short while the ASM Hydrasynth desktop variant and he was very impressed about it. It seemed to be build good, the synthesizer seems to offer a good deal. The only con he could find in the limited time he had was the limited number of available preset sounds. So I can't wait for the Hydrasynth to arrive in Europe and to have it tested.

Wish you all a good weekend and kind regards, Garfield.