Thoughts on a Creek 4040

[guyhayton]

Whilst I am relatively happy with my current amplifier, I have always recognised that it is the weakest link in my setup.

Keeping an eye on the secondhand market, I was wondering what others thought of the Creek 4040 series 2 integrated. I remember about a twenty years ago it was well considered in the HiFi press. A number of these are coming available on the market, some are upgraded, recapped examples.

If one had been cleaned and recapped recently, would it be a worthwhile investment or would I be better saving up for something more recent like a Rega, or Exposure amp. Bearing in mind the saving up time might mean two years with my current amp!!

[DSJR]

It's more like twenty five to thirty years old now.

It was good and cheap then, but with more modern designs such as the Brio R, let alone Arcam, which is all but ignored (unfairly?) around here and the cheap little Cambridge 350A which our very own Beobloke liked in his HFW review a while ago, The 4040 in any marque will show its compromises. For well under a hundred notes though, it may be worth a look, although I think the A&R A60, once double the price of the Creek, would perhaps be better now if fettled the same way unless the used prices now have shot them over a ton :(

[guyhayton]

Wow is it that long ago? I must admit it has been a good while since I read the old HiFi press. I am thinking how I've aged during that time period :stalks:

Yeah, I suppose I know my answer already really. WAIT and SAVE !!

I have had an eye on the Brio and its ilk but 500 notes is well beyond my resources at present.

[Puffin]

I have had 2 of these over the years. I paid very little for them and IMO they gave very little in terms of SQ. Not that robust as the power transistors were a bit flaky. I had to repair one of them with new Darlingtons. Both finally gave up the ghost and I dumped them.

[guyhayton]

Cheers... goes to show it was better to ask the question before I sprung about 80 notes on one.

Better the devil you know :carrot: Thanks chaps for your help.

[synsei]

Guy, if you have no plans to run a turntable have you considered using your Caiman as a pre-amp and buying yourself a nice power amp? I have used a Caiman to drive my Hafler DH220 in the past and the results were astounding, very close to the performance of my Classe DR5. If you can get down to Northamptonshire at all I'd be willing to lend you the Hafler so you can hear for yourself ;)

[guyhayton]

Occasionally I do link my Sky+ box through to the amp for the odd film - but in reality most of the time its my Stan-DAC that is connected.

Getting a TT would be long dark road that I don't intend to venture down again - it would bring back too many memories of my old Linn system that the ex-wife made me get rid of :rolleyes:

Seriously, I am 100% file based now and that isn't going to change. So if I am really thinking about it, a power amp is a real option. One I hadn't considered since I had ruled out the Bantam Gold (http://www.templeaudio.net/bantamgold.html) because it had only one source connection.

[guyhayton]

If you can get down to Northamptonshire at all I'd be willing to lend you the Hafler so you can hear for yourself ;)

That's a very, generous offer and much appreciated. Cheers mate

[synsei]

PM me if you decide to go for it and I'll give you my phone number so we can set up a mutually convenient day for you to come over. Unfortunately I don't have any transport at present so I can't meet you half way, soz...