Incredible clarity, detail, symplistic design, price

Bass

Creek delivers. There is one, and only one area that I am not satisfied with and that is with the low end. The Creek gives you a hint, just a bit of bass to make me hesitate on returning it or not. This amp will tickle you with clarity and openness. The Creek is very revealing, vocals are extremely clear, in fact everything from the midrange on up is spectacular. I found myself shaking my head as to what I have been missing. I played CD's over and over as the Creek revealed guitar strings nuances, piano keys, the instruments and vocals just come alive. Now if there was some bottom end bass, I would be in sonic nirvana! If your main musical interests are acoustical,light classical, etc., then this is the amp. for you. If interests are rock, etc., I would definately audition before you buy. I am using Klipsch KG2 speakers and Kimber 4PR and PBJ.

Similar Products Used:

Nad 7225PE

This little amp impressed me right out of the box so much I actually wrote an email to Michael Creek to congratulate him on his achievment. This is very close to being as good as my Linn Majik integrated (it may be). It is very hard to believe that so much good clean power comes out of such a small box. Do not be deceived by appearances. The sound is very pure and clean with slightly sweetened highs. But the real strength is in how good this amp does the rhythm thing, much like the Linn and Naim products. I now have it matched up with a Creek CD 42 which I bought used two years ago (a very underrated Cd player) and PSB ALPHA speakers (another audio bargain). I have tried it in my main system with a Rega Planet cd player and Linn Kelidh speakers and it works very well with that combination as well. I am told part of the secret to this amp is the passive pre amp section which means you generally remove another layer in that attempt to get the kind of resolution that puts the musician in the room with you. This amp outperformed many of the competitor integrateds in the 1000 - 1500 dollar range in my testing. Very musical.

None of any significance for those who are interested in the music. The remote only adjusts volume, not function or mode, but it is a motorized remote mechanism which generally sounds better than the chip variety.

Terrific value in a small package. Do not be fooled by appearances, just listen to the music. This amp has kept me up at night on many occasions.

Similar Products Used:

Linn Majik, Nad310(a very good bargain but not up to the standards of the Creek,

Overall musicality and smoothness, quality of engineering, simplicity of operation

none

I have now owned my Creek 4330R for about 8 months. I initially used it to drive a pair of B&W CDM7SE speakers in a room of average to small size. Source - Creek CD43, interconnects - DLin Silver Bullet 4, speaker wire - Monster M2.4 biwire. The combination of these components produced heavenly music, rich in detail and soundstaging - I was one happy camper. About a month ago, I decided to upgrade my speakers to the fantastic B&W Nautilus 804s. Given the type of amplification people have recommended to drive them, I was of course quite skeptical that my trusty Creek 4330R could do justice to them. Was I in for a pleasant surprise! When I hooked up the N804s to the Creek, even with minimal break-in of the speakers, the sound that came out was simply incredible! In the shop, I had listened to the N804s powered by Acurus and Adcom amps that were rated well over 100 wpc. Let me say this, my little 40 wpc Creek makes the 804s sound even better - even smoother, less-distorted, more detailed, much better soundstage! Granted, I have a relatively small room and I don't play music at ear-splitting levels. Still I believe the Creek does the job so well that for the forseeable future I have no intention of upgrading the amp. Bravo to Creek Audio Ltd for producing such an amazing product!

Excellent. Clear sound

This Integrated amp appears to be an excellent match for my Rotel RCD 950 CDplayer and NHT Super One Speakers. I had a really hard time deciding between this one and the Rotel RA 971. The rotel has definetely more power but the creek sounds slightly better for about the same price. Also the remote (the rotel does not have one, but it does have more audio inputs) and a good deal from my audio dealer in Kensington, MD made the sell. So far I had no problems. It is an excellent amp. Right now I am looking for the right interconnects but i am a still on the hunt for a good match (any suggestions?)

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 971. NAD C340

I can't resist adding a few more comments about this tiny amp. I'm finding it addictive. I always thought I knew what Creek amps were all about--sweet-sounding, lightweight amps that managed to please mainly by being inoffensive. But all my experience of Creeks were with models that pre-dated the 4330. And understand, I'm not averse to "high end" components--since 1990 I've owned four systems, including three other combinations of amps, preamps, and interconnects that cost $2,600, $3,000, and $2,000 respectively, and that included (not together) a very expensive triode tube power amplifier and a well-known "audiophile classic" tube preamp.

In the most important way, the 4330 does music better than any of them. As I've acclimated to its tonal balance and colorations, nothing annoys or grates on the ear, and I've found no one sonic property highlighted at the expense of highlighting opposing weaknesses. The overriding feeling I get is that in many cases I'm hearing what the musicians intended for the first time. Recordings I thought were dull or flat, music that I thought sounded a bit dead, wooden, or leaden, is all coming alive now that it has the "right" speed and transparency, the "right" combination of propulsiveness, articulation, and higher-frequency smoothness. I can't pretend to know what this is all about. Is it the inherent superiority of lower-power amplification and higher-efficiency speakers? The background silence? The fact that the preamp section is passive? (I've never had any experience with passive preamps before.) The circuit design? All those things?

I have no idea, although I have no doubt about the result--I think it's what Art Dudley in _Listener_ is always prattling on about when he talks about "getting the notes right" and "keeping the beat" and "playing music" and all that. Music as diverse as Eno and Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," Bill Frissell's "Good Dog Happy Man," and Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert's discs of Haydn "Sturm und Drang" symphonies are sounding new to me. I find myself carried along, "getting" the beat, hearing through the equipment. Even slow music has better musical pace.

I'm thinking about keeping this, long-term. The implications for my system are pretty loony. My _power cords_ are worth more than the Creek; my AC power regenerator is worth three times what this cost me, my turntable 6X. I might bi-amp (with the Creek A43 power amp) one day, but I'm not dumping this integrated.

To say I'm surprised by all this is an understatement. Forgive me for gushing. I can't guess if YOU are going to like this or not. But personally, I can't get enough. It's not fancy. It's not impressive LOOKING. It's not expensive (there's another understatement)...but what it does right, I'm hooked on.

Smoothness, bass, balance, simplicity, Arcam CD remote controls the volume (I don't have the Creek remote).

None whatsoever. If I had a larger listening area: inability to play at high dB levels might be an issue.

If I didn't get such a deal, I'd have a used NAIT3 right now. But this is the closest you can get to high-end sound for a new amp at less than $1,000 (I have the Mk2 model). It is so smooth, balanced, revealing, and capable of tight bass it is truly unbelievable. A true engineering marvel. Fed a signal from the Arcam Alpha 7SE to Acoustic Energy Aegis Ones, the 4330 does an amazing job of convincing me that I spent 5X more than the $1,600 I paid for my entire system. Other (non-NAIM) amps I tested were lacking in glaring areas, but the Creek seems to do everything very well. The Rotel had very thin bass, and the highs were hurting my ears. NAD had slamming bass, but the build was terrible and it wasn't nearly as smooth. I liked the Rega, but my musical tastes don't suit its qualities well. I listen to a lot of folk, trip-hop, rock, alt-country, Cuban, samba, classical, and jazz.

Arcam Alpha 7SE
Creek 4330 Mk2
Acoustic Energy Aegis One
Lovan stands filled with sand
Wireworld interconnects
Audioquest speaker cables
Audioquest sorbothane feet

*Note: I do not recommend the Hi-Fi Farm. It took them more than 2 weeks to deliver my amp, and the packaging was woefully inadequate for shipping electronic equipment cross-country. I would rate them 1 out of 5, getting a 1 only because of their prices.

Similar Products Used:

NAIM NAIT5, used NAIT3, Rotel, NAD, Rega AMC all tested.

I bought this tiny little thing bacause of the magic natural sound it produced from my Vandersteens 1ce. Because of it's small size, the inputs are placed too close to each other. That limits the possibility to use different types of interconnects. The circuit of the amp is not properly protected and any shortcircuits can destroy the whole amp instead of just a fuse. But however, it is not neccessary to use an expencive interconnects or cables -- just makes no sence
For my pleasure it I use

Marantz CD67se
Creek 4330R
Goertz interconnects ($80 brand new)
Nordost cables ($100 brand new 9 ft each)
Vandersteen 1ce 2way speakers

For the sound definitely *****
For the design (internal and external)only ***

Overall

cheap, versatile, remote, good sound

lack of body, soundstage, not much else

Clean, quick, yet refined. Not as polte as some review lead to suggest. Honest sound, highs are pure, maybe the best I have heard. Everthing else makes sense, bass could use more bloom that's it. This little guy really kicks in at higher volumes, surprising

Very versatile can be used as a preamp, an amp or obviously an integrated. Sound very different in each mode.

Tried it as a power and with an Assemblage L1 as a pre and the sound was excellent! Very involving and dynamic. Close to the best sound I have had.

As a pre with a Musical Design amp it sounds a bit smaller than I like but still very good, detalied, very good image focus and just musical!

So good for so little money....

Similar Products Used:

none, first SS integrated

Clear as a bell, unbelievably musical, fantastic soundstaging. How can they sell this thing so cheap?

Probably not the amp for deep bass fanatics.

I have to admit I've built my system(s) pretty haphazardly over the years. And I'm like that certain writer at Stereophile, kind of on the cheap side. For the last few years, I've had "consumer grade" front-end components driving pretty reasonable mid-level speakers. The sound of our two systems was, well, not that inspiring. Even after we stepped up to B&W 602's and CDM1SE's the rest of the chain wasn't up to the task of delivering the real goods. But now, CD's are piling up like crazy. Why? 2 reasons: MSB and Creek.

Running the Phillips CD player (think: high-end Marantz) into a Rotel RA-870 and then into the B&W 602's gave a thin sound and a fairly narrow and fuzzy soundstage. High-end a bit strident, mid-range not too warm or involving. Low level detail? Almost none. MIT speaker cable helped the soundstage and the low-level detail (a bit). The Creek 4330 went into the system (boy is that little box heavier than it looks!) and absolutely everything got better. Bass tightened up, midrange sweetened, and the highs became downright civilized. Haven't turned on the Rotel since. The big wow factor came when the MSB Link DAC went into the system. Low-level detail like there's no tomorrow. Image depth that's almost scary. Soundstage out beyond the left and right speaker boundaries. I had never had that "see into the music" or "you are there" feeling in my own house (only in megabuck listening rooms at audiophile dealers). Geez, $300 (used price) integrated amp and a $300 (used price) DAC. You could be very happy right there. Eventually the system got upgraded (Full Nelson Link DAC, Monarchy Audio DIP) and Nautilus 805's. Does it get better than this? I'm sure it does, but not at prices I'm willing to pay. I suppose it's time to find a better CD transport. Anyone selling a used Rega Planet? :-)

This is what I thought NAD's should have always sounded like, but never did.

One nit: I get a little crack from the speakers when I turn the amplifier on. Nothing scary, just a little annoying. I solve this problem by never turning the amp off.

Killer track: Skye Edwards inhaling before singing first note on "The Sea" on Morcheeba's 1998 "Big Calm" album. I swear she's standing right between the two speakers in our living room.

System 1:
Phillips CD1 Transport => Toslink =>
Monarchy Audio DIP => AES/EBU =>
-OR-
PC w/ CardDeluxe sound card AES/EBU =>
MSB Link DAC III Full Nelson (w/ powerbase) =>
Creek 4330 => MIT Terminator 2 => B&W Nautilus 805
also (SpeakerCraft SoundLynx, anyone remember those? killer!)
Note: This system also had B&W CDM1 SE's in it for a while. Those were not my favorite speakers. Traded them in for the 805's.

System 2:
Marantz CD 63SE transport =>
MSB Link DAC III =>
Creek 4330 => MIT Terminator 2 => B&W 602 S2
(My goal for this system is to find a killer pair of $1000 speakers and a used Rega Planet. Awesome system: $2000!).

Yes, that's right. I bought another Creek 4330 for our second system. One of them has a phono board in it. Can't wait to set up a working turntable again.

Similar Products Used:

Various NAD integrateds (3020, 7155), Rotel RA-870, Yamaha CA-1000

Very Detailed, Musical, Smooth

Nothing I can think of.

This is indeed a great little amplifier, the amount of detail you hear is really amazing, you will be surprised to hear your favourite music and the detail. It is detailed, yet smooth, high resoloution? You bet, it is here, I simply cannot believe how good the sound quality of this unit is. Since it has so much detail, you do not need to turn the volume very loud, I usually turn it up to 10 O'clock position and it fills my living room, if you turn it up it gets even better, you will be able to catch the words on rock recordings, you turn the volume up, the music gets loud but it does not cover the voice of the singer, truly amzing. Here is another one I noticed about it, and this is while I was watching a movie one night, I have connected the DVD player to it, you know that in the night time, when you put music on, as the night goes by the music seems to get louder even though your volume level is constant, I experienced this with Linn and other previous gear I had, but with this Creek 4330R, I noticed that once you set the volume to your desire level, you do not need to change it, you won't feel that it is getting louder as the night goes by. If I had paid $1000.00 for it, I will still call it a bargain, and at this price with a phono stage it is a steal. My hats off to Creek for making such a great and amzing sounding amplifier. Thanks Creek.

Similar Products Used:

Linn, MaCormack.