mecano
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2002
- Posts
- 599
- Likes
- 11
Hi guys
About four months ago I bought the Creek 11 plus the obh1/obh2 it was mainly for my “transportable” system (Sony MD+Grado225/325) since is small and cute and I travel a lot but I liked the sound so much -pleasant ,involving but not fatiguing-that I decided to keep it as my main head amp(and sell the Headroom Home).
Part 1.
The component that looked like it might be doing the worst job was the RCA jacks,my guess was that a better one would improve the sound further. So I replaced them with 4 ClearAudio reference RCA jacks plus silver wiring inside.It was a pain but well worth the effort as the sound became more clear more “there” . Besides these big gold jacks look so sexy against the black case
.
Part2.
I had been told that the caps inside are begging to be changed so I got 7 Elna caps and replaced all the electrolytes.These are the caps I put inside :
ELNA Cerafine 35V 220uF x1
ELNA Cerafine 50V 47uF x1
ELNA Cerafine 25V 220uF x1
ELNA Cerafine 63V 47uF x3
ELNA Tonorex 35V 2200uF x 1
I got them from Mike (Pink Floyd) aka Pinkie(cheers Mike!)It now has 200+ hours burn in with the new caps so I settle on posting my thoughts.I don t have a “standard” Creek to do A/B comparison but I can tell you from memory is superior and more refined.Its very clear,airy with fine detail. Rhythm ‘n’ pace are great from this amp. I find the sound now more consistent and involving, with more convincing dynamics, images are more focused. Sure its not as warm as a tube amp but it doesn’t t sound sterile-to me-and with the Grado 325 I got a nice enjoyable sound from my portable(or is it mobile?) ring as long as the main one something no other combo I own/owned(Headroom Home/325/DT931 ,Xpsu/Xcan/hd600/325/225), was able to do.I guess a reason for that is that the fatigue factor is now so low and I reckon the 2200uF Tonerex is the main reason for that.
Part 3.
About the PSUs.The OBH-2 is basically a glorified wall wart and it uses an LM317 voltage regulator while OBH-1 is only a cheap way to use the amp and nothing more.Apparently with the OBH-2 the sound is better, more transparent but since I don t like wall warts I ll build my own psu.One way is a 50VA toroid or R-core transformer and a couple Elna caps but because of such a low current draw(around 30mA) and my desire for a more elegant solution I decided to use battery power,but not with battery holders and NiMH AAs.Heh there is more than AAs if you want pure and reliable DC power
.There is a company from Scandinavia(Denmark) that produces some very nice and musical sounding gear(amps and cd players).Its Holfi ,if you don t know them you may have seen their components with the gorgeous solid wood finish.
http://www.holfi.dk/Products/ItemLis...uID=11&Level=2
This company uses extensively in the top line even their power amps rechargeable lead-acid batteries.These batteries are popular in applications such as security, UPS, telecommunications, military, emergency lights and medical equipment.My alarm system at home uses a high quality Yuasa-Exide 12V sealed lead acid battery so I knew where to look.See them here:
http://www.powerfactorinc.com/Batteries/yuasa.htm
i ll use 2 Yuasa NP0.8-12 or even NP1.2-12 is series for 24V in a nice aluminum enclosure.I ll get them next week so watch this thread for more about the Creek baby
About four months ago I bought the Creek 11 plus the obh1/obh2 it was mainly for my “transportable” system (Sony MD+Grado225/325) since is small and cute and I travel a lot but I liked the sound so much -pleasant ,involving but not fatiguing-that I decided to keep it as my main head amp(and sell the Headroom Home).
Part 1.
The component that looked like it might be doing the worst job was the RCA jacks,my guess was that a better one would improve the sound further. So I replaced them with 4 ClearAudio reference RCA jacks plus silver wiring inside.It was a pain but well worth the effort as the sound became more clear more “there” . Besides these big gold jacks look so sexy against the black case
Part2.
I had been told that the caps inside are begging to be changed so I got 7 Elna caps and replaced all the electrolytes.These are the caps I put inside :
ELNA Cerafine 35V 220uF x1
ELNA Cerafine 50V 47uF x1
ELNA Cerafine 25V 220uF x1
ELNA Cerafine 63V 47uF x3
ELNA Tonorex 35V 2200uF x 1
I got them from Mike (Pink Floyd) aka Pinkie(cheers Mike!)It now has 200+ hours burn in with the new caps so I settle on posting my thoughts.I don t have a “standard” Creek to do A/B comparison but I can tell you from memory is superior and more refined.Its very clear,airy with fine detail. Rhythm ‘n’ pace are great from this amp. I find the sound now more consistent and involving, with more convincing dynamics, images are more focused. Sure its not as warm as a tube amp but it doesn’t t sound sterile-to me-and with the Grado 325 I got a nice enjoyable sound from my portable(or is it mobile?) ring as long as the main one something no other combo I own/owned(Headroom Home/325/DT931 ,Xpsu/Xcan/hd600/325/225), was able to do.I guess a reason for that is that the fatigue factor is now so low and I reckon the 2200uF Tonerex is the main reason for that.
Part 3.
About the PSUs.The OBH-2 is basically a glorified wall wart and it uses an LM317 voltage regulator while OBH-1 is only a cheap way to use the amp and nothing more.Apparently with the OBH-2 the sound is better, more transparent but since I don t like wall warts I ll build my own psu.One way is a 50VA toroid or R-core transformer and a couple Elna caps but because of such a low current draw(around 30mA) and my desire for a more elegant solution I decided to use battery power,but not with battery holders and NiMH AAs.Heh there is more than AAs if you want pure and reliable DC power
http://www.holfi.dk/Products/ItemLis...uID=11&Level=2
This company uses extensively in the top line even their power amps rechargeable lead-acid batteries.These batteries are popular in applications such as security, UPS, telecommunications, military, emergency lights and medical equipment.My alarm system at home uses a high quality Yuasa-Exide 12V sealed lead acid battery so I knew where to look.See them here:
http://www.powerfactorinc.com/Batteries/yuasa.htm
i ll use 2 Yuasa NP0.8-12 or even NP1.2-12 is series for 24V in a nice aluminum enclosure.I ll get them next week so watch this thread for more about the Creek baby
