Mean looking in black, open soundstage, good separation and coherence of the music

The preamp unit is too light so large interconnects always tilted it and it may not be good to control vibration.

My impression on OBH-8SE has started when I'd decided to switch from an on-board phono preamp in LINN Kolektor to the OBH-8SE. The difference was obvious in terms of dimensional presentation. With the OBH-8SE, music seems to be more musical, notes seems to be more coulorful. Treble is very good and bass is more realistic; the OBH-2 power supply is also an excellent upgrade from the previous version OBH-8 which is equiped with conventional grade PSU. This phono preamp is the best you can buy for your money. It features many upgraded parts from the OBH-8: goldplated connectors, Elna caps, triple power supply caps, etc...which makes the 8SE much better than the older version.

Similar Products Used:

LINN's onboard phono, QED Discsaver

musicality,smooth relaxed and bubbbbbbly

slightly lacking in depth and seperation

What a little box of magic this Creek is,I can't believe a box so small can make a sound sooo big,ok it's not beautiful to look at,but the sound the bubbles forth is just so aluring. I'm using it with a Rega P25,origin live arm mod,Shure V15mkIII,B&W 804,CJ pre,Bel Canto power. The sound I hear just captivates you with its begulling sound,that will captivate you and you find more and more vinyl to listen to,it just holds your attention with a none attention grabbing sound.It just gets on the job of presenting music,pure and simple,it's not out to impress,oh no,its just far too good for that,and at such as modest price,a steal second hand,just laughing at what this little beaut can do. Treble is smooth clean,with no spit or grain,it won't strip the wallpaper off your walls,or send the local K9 population into a mad frenze,oh no,it's to refined for that,just leaves you listening to the top end in a natural unforced fashion. Moving down the freq range mids are natural,matches well to the kevler of the relaxed B&W804,voices are natural,unforced,and tangable,integrating well with the treble unit. Bass just boogies,nice and fruity,rich,and not overpowering,just flows to the music,not disjointed,just well presented and in time with the rest of the presentation,not hard hitting,or punchy,again just smooth,relaxed and bubbly,that allows you to enjoy the unit record after record. Allowing for price,I don't think stage is huge,or very deep,or the greatest serperation,thats not it's forte,it's pure strength is its sheer musicality,listenability,tunefulness,smoothness, a truly budget wonder!! superb for its price.

Musical with good gain, high quality design, fast and involving.

None

Works very well with my Music Hall MMF-7 Turntable and Jolida 502B tube amp. Beautiful design and musical without any solid state harshness. Perfect for any budget system.

Similar Products Used:

None

Clean, refined sound.Excellent value.

None

Bought this unit to upgrade from the NAD unit. Very definite improvement, much more detailed sound. Bass is tight, mids are smooth and open,highs positively shimmer with a good disc. If you are an audiophile on a budget, as i am, this is the one for you. High End performance with out the absurd pricetag. Associated equipment: Project 6.1 tt,Sumiko Blue Point cartridge, Kimber Silver Streak cables, Anthem Pre1L, Adcom Gfa 555, Vandersteen 2ce Signature.

Similar Products Used:

Nad pp1

Absolutely quiet! Clean flat sound. Decent amount of gain.

None that I can hear. An adjustable gain setting would have been nice.

If you are looking for a perfect mate to a Shure v-15, this is the preamp. The Shure has a slightly lower output than most MM cartridges, and this preamp has quite a bit of gain to it. Highs are excellent, deep bass extension, ABSOLUTELY NO HISS! This is very important in phono reproduction, as any noise quickly becomes BIG noise as you crank it up. One suggestion: Never turn the unit on with your main volume cranked way up. There is a surge from the OBH that will give your speakers quite a test. I have now used this unit for over a year, and am quite sure that I will keep it!

Similar Products Used:

Obh-8, Audiosource phono preamp, many different "receiver" preamps.

Soundstage, tight bass, musical.

None for the price.

I purchased the Creek OBH-8SE after auditioning several phono preamps with a price up to about $300. The Creek OBH-8SE was the best of the lot. The sound was musical, not overly bright, yet dynamic. Bass was tight, not "boomy". There is a wide, deep soundstage.

Price is about the same as the MF X-LP. The MF had a somewhat murky sound with much less definition than the Creek. The Parasound is about $150 less than the Creek, and had an overly bright sound with less depth and width to the soundstage.

In my opinion, it is worth the extra $$ to purchase the SE version of this phono preamp. For the extra money, you get gold-plated RCA's and supposedly higher grade and closer tolerance components, and a gain stage using a cascoded low noise J-FET. The power supply for the SE is the much beefier PS-2 that is probably responsible for much of the improvement over the standard OBH-8. The SE has tighter bass, is less bright, more dynamic in its sound, and has a deeper and wider soundstage.

Not a bad little phono preamp for the price!

Similar Products Used:

Parasound P/PH-100, Musical Fidelity X-LP, Creek OBH-8