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.

Single Ended Tube Amp

A little update on the Electrohome tube amp that I recently picked up, first off it is a Single Ended tube amp as opposed to a Push/Pull tube amp. There is a tone of debate on which sounds better and for the price I paid for my amp there is no debate.

The 6BQ5 tubes run around 5.7 watts per channel of pure Class A power, plenty of power for very efficient speakers at a normal to semi loud listening level.

I have run the gauntlet of speakers through this amp and only two pairs really shine and bring out the best in the audio signal and believe me this amp is extremely revealing, open and absolutely clean and clear, so much I hear things I never heard before.

So, which speakers sounded best with this amp?

Tannoy Oxford Gold, hands down winner....

There is something about the horn loaded tweeter that is spot on with this amp. The Oxford Golds are 93db efficient and the 10" woofer rounds out the solid bass perfectly. The tweeters are nearly time aligned with the woofer, so the sound is great. The highs sparkle, the mid range is spot on as if you are in a studio with the musicians and instruments right in front of you, it really is amazing to listen through these speakers. When listening to my audio sources through solid state equipment, the Tannoy's do not shine as well as they do with tubes.

Another great speaker to run with the tube amp is the Sound Dynamics 10S, once again a very efficient speaker at around 96db, the bass is much fuller with the Sound Dynamic but the overall sound is more like you are at an 1000 seat concert room.

The recessed horn loaded tweeter throws out a wider sound stage and is not recording studio precise as the Tannoy's. These speakers are time aligned due to the recess of the tweeter, smooth across the mid range and deep in the bass. Like I said these are like you are at the concert where as the Tannoy's you are in the studio.

I am absolutely  awe struck in what I am currently listening to and feel that I have reached a peak in performance and I will find it hard to top this set up.

Braun L830 crossover upgrade

I spent the better part of 4 hours recapping two pairs of Braun L830 speakers with a swap of woofers thrown into the mix.

The white pair of Braun's got a full compliment of Solen polypropylene 5% caps and the better aesthetics woofer while the veneer speakers got the other woofers and full compliment of Solen metalized polyester 5% caps.

Let's see what I am dealing with..

 Patients on the operating table....

 Before the re cap..

 After the re cap, those 47uf caps barely fit.

Second white Braun....

The veneer Braun's before they go back together.

Both pair of speakers are now burning in the caps at low volume.

Hanging out in a good crowd, EPI 100V's that just got a make over and the Tannoy Oxford Gold that got a cap upgrade.



Never has the collection been so deep, diverse and exciting.

Tannoy Oxford Gold

Along the lines of the yesterdays British invasion was a pair of well regarded Tannoy Oxford Gold speakers.

This is the second pair of Tannoy's that I have owned and the first real pair of English real pair, as opposed to this Tannoy/API C-6 version that must have been made under license for the Canadian market.

Tannoy is famous for their dual concentric driver units and the Tannoy Stratford, Cambridge and Oxford were the first units to see the separation of the LF and HF units.

The Oxford speaker, according to many sources on the web were used as studio monitors across England and perhaps elsewhere.

I have already installed a new 2.2uf Solen 5% cap in the crossover of which it looks like the woofer is crossed over on a first order basis with the tweeter second order as there are two inductors and only one capacitor.

The cabinets are a little beat and will need some love when time permits. Also the foam grills were not to be found which indicates that they probably disintegrated over time.

So how do they sound? well at 93db efficiency and the amount of workmanship that went into these speakers they do sound pretty damn nice. Bass is solid with 10 inch ported woofer, mid range is present and forward and the highs spot on. Once again this is a speaker that puts you in with the musicians as they paly the music.

The original brochure can be found on this link.