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Review NaN of
Price Paid:
$0.00
from Campsie Hi-Fi NSW Au Summary:
I picked up the Creek OBH-22 at Campsie HiFi (Australia), and have Christian there to thank for opening my ears to the joys of passive pre-amps. I'd dropped in to audition speakers, and ended up being more impressed with the OBH-12, which calmly beat a AU$4500 Bryston active. As I was in need of a good pre, and was not about to drop that kind of dosh on something which should simply pass a signal from a CD player to a power amp, I was rather happy about this. The OBH-22 was on the horizon, so I decided I'd give one a try. As I waited, I read up on the world of pre-amps - Passives seem to get a bad wrap from a lot of audiophiles, and they have a reputation for not working in certain systems. So by the time the unit arrived, I was almost expecting to hear reduced dynamics(particularly bass), and a lifeless and 2D soundstage. I'd end up liking passives in pricipal but not in practice. No way. The OBH-22 performs EXACTLY as I hoped it would. I've demoed a few other pre's in my system (see below), and the Creek thrashed them all. Complete openness, transparency, accuracy and detail, and a wide, 3D soundstage without a trace of grain, grit, noise, distortion or congestion. The noise floor also fell away. And what is all this crap about passive pre-amps lacking bass dynamics and defintion !? A huge bass improvement is the first thing I noticed. From there it just got better. By comparison, everything else I've heard sounds like it's 'doing' something to the signal - EQ-ing it, exaggerating it, compressing it, veiling it or blooming out the bottom end. With the OBH-22, it's all just THERE, clean and unobstructed, on any type of music (and I listen to just about everything). I've reached a point where I'm sick of reading and hearing about audio gear that's "more musical, warm, smooth, expressive, harmonic" or whatever other silly terms can be drummed up, when really, accuracy is the first casualty! So if you're like me, and want to cut the crap, and get to the REAL recording, this little box is for you. Hell - the new model even looks great and has a nice remote! I suspect a handful of people have had bad experiences only because of impedence mis-matches, which is very rare. My Arcam Alpha 8 has a 2.35Vrms output with 50 ohms impedance, and my Rotel power amp has a sensitivity of 1 volt with 33 kilo-ohms impedance. In my setup, the Creek works like a dream....
My system is...
* Speakers: VAF Research DC-X (great in every way)
* Creek OBH-22 passive pre-amp (for 2-channel music - I will have this thing buried with me)
* Arcam Alpha 8 CD player (upgraded with LClock XO3 and improved op-amps - incredible)
* Rotel RMB-1075 5-channel power amp (drives the DC-X's with ABSOLUTE ease)
* Rotel RB-971 2-channel power amp (for surrounds)
* Rotel RSP-1066 surround Pre/Pro (nice)
* Speaker cable: Belden 1810A ( quad-cable but single-wired over a 10metre run - This equals any overpriced snake-oil cable I've heard)
* Interconnects: Van den Hul D-102 MkIII (no real improvement over solidly made standard interconnects)
* DVD's come off a custom HTPC (love it...)
Strengths:
EVERYTHING sounds dead right. Feel like I could own it forever... This is the pre-amp to beat! Weaknesses:
Volume buttons on remote could be slightly larger, IR pickup range could be wider. Similar Products Used:
Musical Fidelity A3.2cr / Audio Research tube / ME25 / Rotel RSP-1066 / receivers from Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo.
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