Clements 300si Speakers

A friend of the blog was kind enough to stop by one evening with his pair of Clements 300si speakers. He was originally interested in the NAD Model 30's and felt that the Clements infinite baffle design had just as much bass as the NAD's. The Clements had pretty solid bass right down to the 40hz level from a 61/2 inch woofer, pretty impressive for its' size. The Clement's gave the NAD"s a run for the money in the bottom end.

We ran the speakers through the Creek 4040s2 which did not match well with these speakers. We switched up to the Yamaha CR-400 and the sound was night and day. The Yamaha opened up these speakers, the detail in sound with the Clements and Yamaha was a better pairing..

We finally switched to the tube amp and these sounded good at first with the speakers near the wall I knew they could sound better if we brought them in to within 4 feet.

Now we were enveloped with sound, Clements are not the most efficient at 88db's so we had to push the tube amp a little herder.

All I can say is WoW! for such a small speaker these had an incredible smoothness, from solid clear bass into the luscious mid range and sparkling highs that were never harsh or shrill.

Up close the speakers enveloped you into their sound stage, left right, front and back it was like being in the room with the musicians. We listened to about 4 hours worth of music and my friend has just reached out for some tube amp advice, he was taken aback with the silky sound of the tubes, they paired very well with the Clements although they do not go earth shaking  loud, which is perfect when kepping other happy.

This speaker reminds me of the sound of the Paradigm Control Monitors I had at one time, incredibly polite, smooth, a very nice speaker and worth seeking out when they come up for sale.

Merak Mk1speaker update

So I have been listening to the Merak's on a pretty constant basis the past week and when hooked to the Creek 4040s2 amp the Merak's sound incredibly deep and full.

As with some speakers I get fatigued listening to them after an hour or so but the Merak's are as smooth as silk. They give a very deep image in where the instruments are laid out in front of you in a very 3 dimensional way and that is what I mean by depth.

The mid range is very smooth and the highs are just perfect without the brashness.

These speakers really do remind me of my Mission 770 Freedom IV's, they are just not as forward in the mid range as the Missions.

Matched with the Creek Merak Mk1's are a great find and a real pleasure to listen to and almost rival my tube amp/Tannoy combo in openness and clarity, and that is very high praise.

Merak Mk1 Speakers

Another pair of speakers showed today, the Merak Mk1 Speakers. These are a Canadian version of a Mission 770 speaker that uses Seas drivers. The 8 inch woofer looks to have been re foamed already and the cabinets are in pretty good shape.

I have only had a small audition of these speakers and so far I am impressed with what I hear. I will run these through the solid state amplifiers including the Creek 4040s2, Yamaha CR-400 and the Sherwood S-7200.

ReVox Piccolo sub woofer & Beovox MCX-35 satellites

I spotted a ReVox Piccolo sub recently and figured it would be worth the purchase even to hook up to a pair of Realistic Minimus 7's that I have on hand. ReVox subs were made in Germany and they have the distinctive Braun, A/D/S, Canton, etc look.

Later I came across this entry level B&O Beovox offering, the Beovox MCX-35 for a price I could not refuse. These Beovox speakers are very entry level but use a Vifa D19td tweeter and a 5.25" German made woofer that you would find in most Braun A/D/S/ compact speaker systems, I figured I got a winning combination on my hands.

As a stand alone system the Beovox MCX-35's small woofer strives to hit the low notes only to break up the bass and become muddy. The ReVox sub crossover the Beovox at 150Hz which is perfect for the diminutive woofer to focus on the music above that cut off, which it does very well. Once the Beovox does not have to focus on the lower registries, these speakers can shine in the mid range and highs.

One of the speakers needed an extensive tweeter and crossover fix, my trusty solder iron did the trick along with a hot glue gun. Since I had the crossovers out I replaced the tweeter cap with a Solen metalized polyester cap (3.3uf).

This pairing of satellites and sub along with the Creek 4040s2 sounds pretty amazing. The ReVox sub needed to be off the floor by about 18" to clean up the bass. I found the bass a little boomy and muddled when on the floor. This system really works well and I am enjoying how open and clear the music is.

Creek 4040s2 with NAD Model 30 speakers.

So I have had some time to run through the speaker line up with the recently purchased Creek 4040s2 amp.

These two were meant to play together, the Creek 4040s2 has incredible detail and sound stage and the clarity of the NAD Model 30 pinpoints the music perfectly.

Due to the fact that the NAD Model 30 runs at 4 ohms it pulls 40WPC out of the Creek and fills the bottom end better than an 8 ohm speaker.

The Creek 4040s2 has been compared in many ways to the A&R A60 amp that I almost bought in the 80's but I opted for the Rotel RA840BX instead.

I spent hours running the Creek with Mission 770 Freedom IV's, the Tannoy Oxford Gold's, B&W D5's and by far the best pairing is the NAD Model 30's.

Wow!!!

Creek 4040s2 Integrated Amp

I came across this mid 80's Creek 404s2 amp yesterday on my way to work. I did not know anything about Creek but realized that this little amp was designed and built in England. I knew it would be worth while.

The 4040s2 is rated at 30 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 40 watts per channel into 4 ohms, there is a large toroidal transformer with two 6800uf caps, this unit states that it has 11 amps of back up power for peak music.

I have only had about 30 minutes of time with this unit playing through the Visonik Euro 7's, Tannoy Oxford Gold's and the B&W D5's and wow! does this little unit sound open and transparent.

I will run this unit soon with the Mission 770 Freedom IV's and the Celestion Ditton 110's soon.

There will be more to come in the future on this amazing little amp.