[PinkFloyd]

This was taken from the description of the Creek OBH 11 at their website:

"No expense has been spared to enable the OBH-11 headphone amp to faithfully reproduce a music signal. Only the highest quality components are used in its classic amplifier circuitry, to achieve low distortion and noise, with good stereo separation".


No expense spared????????? erm I tend to disagree with that statement Mr. Creek. You have used the cheapest components available on the market in this amp and you want to revise that paragraph to:

"Expense has been cut down to the bone and we use the cheapest components money can buy in our classic amplifier circuitry to maximise our profits"

God, do these manufacturers think we don't know how to use a screwdriver and "never" have a look under the bonnet? I'll be contacting Michael Creek to ask him why My headphone amplifier didn't come with "the highest quality components" on board and arrived with "cheap crap" instead.

A blatant case of misrepresentation of goods if ever I saw one.

See the full write up on the OBH 11 by Creek here:

http://www.creekaudio.co.uk/products...bh_11_11se.asp

If any other OBH 11 owners here take a screwdriver to the unit and slide the PCB out (easy 30 second job) they will see for themselves that cheaper components couldn't have been used as these "are" the cheapest you can get!

God I'm fuming after seeing that description on the Creek site, I will be on the phone to them first thing tomorrow!

 

[PinkFloyd]

Just seen this comment at the Creek Site also:

"Audio bandwidth is limited by input and output coupling capacitors to prevent unwanted signals".

hmmmm.. they wouldn't be the "unwanted signals" that are emitting from the Samwha 35v 2200uF capacitor costing one penny (UK) would they? Maybe they are unwanted signals from your other "high quality no expense spared" components??

In other words the frequency response has been tailored and probably cut off around the 15khz mark to hide all the crap the componentry gives off. No wonder Creek don't show their frequency response specifications because if they did their amp would prove to be very Lo-Fi indeed.

It's not that this amp is "smoother" and the X-cans are brighter it's the fact the HF has been rolled off!

Not only a phone call to Michael Creek tomorrow but also a visit to a very good friend and his test equipment this evening just to see exactly what the measurements are.

God, it's now looking like I'll be sending the capacitors as well as this piece of nonsense back.. the more I delve into it, the more this amp is becomming a can of worms.

Will keep you posted

 

[fredpb]

Not to mention the crap power supply they provide.

I had the Creek. Past tense.

 

[kelly]

It's refreshing to have the occasional person agree with me. Of course, I didn't get a look inside the Creek and probably wouldn't have been able to find my way around if I had -- but I was definitely underwhelmed by how it sounded.

If you really call Creek, let us know how that goes. I hear he's a nice guy. It'd be cool to hear what he has to say about the amp.

 

[purk]

I want to know too!!!

 

[andrzejpw]

<shudder> Personally, I hate the creek as well. The sound is so uninvolving. . . I mean, if you want to listen to crap, the creek delivers.

 

[hinors14]

Hmmm... my setup is:

Thule CD 100 II -> Creek OBH-11SE -> HD600

Wouldn't you also say that it is the Creek that is the weakest link here? Where I live the Creek is roughly $300. Which amplifier should I consider if I max. want to spent $500? Maybe the Corda Headamp ($345)?

 

[Hirsch]

At one point, when I was still solvent, my headphone amps were the X-Can v2, the Grado RA-1, and the Creek OBH-11se. I still own two of them.

The Creek had a very cold and analytic sound that I could never listen to for a long period of time. The other two sounded like music.

 

[jpelg]

Hmmm, I kinda like my OBH-11. Granted it is the best HF amp I've ever heard (which I plan to remedy at the next NY meet

), and I fully acknowledge the limitation of my experience. But I don't hate it, by any means.

I seem to like a cleaner, more analytical sound so that may explain part of my impressions. Adding the Clou cable was a wonderful "clearing of the throat" for my HD580's. I hope to hear a Sugden Headmaster at the meet which is supposed to be the king of clarity with the Senn's (with the possible exception of the HR Max or Blockhead). It must be awesome. I hope I don't come back and throw up when I listen to my own rig again. Or perhaps my source will be a limiting factor here too.