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Submitted By: ludwigvan968

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Location: Austin, Tx

Joined: Aug 31 2005

Posts:

Creek budget integrate

Posted: November 20, 2006 - 9:21pm

Hello everyone,

I hope you all are having a good one. I am posting to ask for peoples opinion on creek integrated amplifiers. I have had a creek 4330 and 4140, both of which exceeded my expectations by a long shot. Their ability to play the music was truly impressive. I have heard their latest offering is now made in china and not quite as good, is this true? Also I was just wondering in general what everyone's favorite budget Creek amplifier is? I think I would have to vote for the 4140, I like the size, sound and the simple design, I found the DIN connections to a nice esoteric touch.

Cheers.

Submitted By: Jeff Wong

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Joined: Sep 6 2005

Posts:

Re: Creek budget integrate

Posted: November 20, 2006 - 10:52pm

I own a 4240SE which I happily used for many years. I replaced the op amps with Burr Brown 2132s for a faster, cleaner sound. Years ago, I spoke to Mike Creek, who suggested I do some mods discovered during Alex Nikitin's development of the 4330, which incorporated better regulation and parallel capacitance. He suggested that I replace the zener diodes that serve as regulators for the + and - legs of the op amps with LM317 and LM337 voltage regulators in my 4240SE, which would improve the bass. I was also planning on replacing the two 10,000 uf caps with several smaller ones in parallel to lower the inductance, and was considering putting in a stepped attenuator. But, after thinking about it, I felt I had reached the point of diminishing returns and would be better served by upgrading to full separates from a different company, which I did.

I suspect the 4330 and 5350SE are far superior to any models that preceded them.