Top 5 Integrated Amps
- Thread starter backtovinyl
- Start date
Gervais Cote
Predator
For the price, this one is impossible to beat.Any excuse to show off this amp.
Gervais Cote
Predator
That’s what happens when you listen with your ears rather than your eyes.
Chris81
pfm Member
Theorie + Anwendung Pre(&) Amplifier (=Integrated) 3100 High Voltage
VTA
pfm Member
Love the little Creek amps also. Not what I would call top amps but great amps! I have a 4140 with matching tuner which I love the look of. One for sale at a potentially good price now I see https://www.ebay.com/itm/1947770690...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1
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Neil P
pfm Member
Lovely looking amp. If it wasn't for those pesky recessed speaker terminals I'd probably buy one.
S-Man
StrivingON
I'm surprised to see vintage Creek amps being in people's top 5 so often. Aren't the newer ones better?
I mended a 4140 for a friend. Cute little amp, but the sound was rather "80's" i.e. tight, clean and musical but a touch forward and edgy.
I also fixed and recapped a NAD 325BEE for the same guy. Somewhat better sound than the Creek. Actually pretty impressive for the money. Much more advanced design than the Creek. Poor quality components though.
Best integrated I've had out of not many was a Union Research Primo. Superior to a Nait XS when I demoed it. The dealer also threw a Roksan (Kandy?) in the mix to see what sort of sound I liked, one track was enough to work out I didn't like that sort of sound.
I mended a 4140 for a friend. Cute little amp, but the sound was rather "80's" i.e. tight, clean and musical but a touch forward and edgy.
I also fixed and recapped a NAD 325BEE for the same guy. Somewhat better sound than the Creek. Actually pretty impressive for the money. Much more advanced design than the Creek. Poor quality components though.
Best integrated I've had out of not many was a Union Research Primo. Superior to a Nait XS when I demoed it. The dealer also threw a Roksan (Kandy?) in the mix to see what sort of sound I liked, one track was enough to work out I didn't like that sort of sound.
TonyScarlett
pfm Member
At least 3 amps there that I would like to own one day!
messengerman
pfm Member
My first amp was a Creek 4040s3. If I like something I tend to keep it (and stop reading hifi magazines) and I kept the 4040 for about 15 years. When it eventually started playing up I replaced it with a used 4140 (bit of a disappointment) then a 4240 which is really is a belter. I have other amps these days (Sansui G8000, Berning ZH270) but the 4240 takes it's place in rotation and never feels like a backwards step.
The only thing it lacks is a decent phono stage. I recently bought the latest Creek plug in phone board and while it's OK its not a patch on the stage fitted to the old Sansui. Props to Mike Creek though for making the boards retrofittable and more bonus points for helping me personally with a few installation questions. That apart it's hard to beat an old Creek for sound quality and all but impossible for good used value. It's a real shame making budget amps appears to be no longer viable for them.
What does it sound like? Well I think generous is the right word. Surprisingly gutsy too. If your music has soul it will serve it up to you beautifully laid out on a plate. Soul, reggae. hip-hop, EDM, jazz, blues, classical, opera all sound fabulous. The polar opposite of contemporary Naims which will murder any music with soul and hammer drill its desiccated remains into your brain. There's a reason Naim users still think prog rock or indie is the only thing worth listening to
The only thing it lacks is a decent phono stage. I recently bought the latest Creek plug in phone board and while it's OK its not a patch on the stage fitted to the old Sansui. Props to Mike Creek though for making the boards retrofittable and more bonus points for helping me personally with a few installation questions. That apart it's hard to beat an old Creek for sound quality and all but impossible for good used value. It's a real shame making budget amps appears to be no longer viable for them.
What does it sound like? Well I think generous is the right word. Surprisingly gutsy too. If your music has soul it will serve it up to you beautifully laid out on a plate. Soul, reggae. hip-hop, EDM, jazz, blues, classical, opera all sound fabulous. The polar opposite of contemporary Naims which will murder any music with soul and hammer drill its desiccated remains into your brain. There's a reason Naim users still think prog rock or indie is the only thing worth listening to
Hazelberry
sister
Shame about the Creek plug-in phono stage. Is it a step down from earlier ones, like your old 4040s3?My first amp was a Creek 4040s3. If I like something I tend to keep it (and stop reading hifi magazines) and I kept the 4040 for about 15 years. When it eventually started playing up I replaced it with a used 4140 (bit of a disappointment) then a 4240 which is really is a belter. I have other amps these days (Sansui G8000, Berning ZH270) but the 4240 takes it's place in rotation and never feels like a backwards step.
The only thing it lacks is a decent phono stage. I recently bought the latest Creek plug in phone board and while it's OK its not a patch on the stage fitted to the old Sansui. Props to Mike Creek though for making the boards retrofittable and more bonus points for helping me personally with a few installation questions. That apart it's hard to beat an old Creek for sound quality and all but impossible for good used value. It's a real shame making budget amps appears to be no longer viable for them.
What does it sound like? Well I think generous is the right word. Surprisingly gutsy too. If your music has soul it will serve it up to you beautifully laid out on a plate. Soul, reggae. hip-hop, EDM, jazz, blues, classical, opera all sound fabulous. The polar opposite of contemporary Naims which will murder any music with soul and hammer drill its desiccated remains into your brain. There's a reason Naim users still think prog rock or indie is the only thing worth listening to
Re the Sansui, I'm of the opinion that the high water mark for integrated phono stages was in from the late 70s-early 80s, Japanese style. I have a c.1982 Technics with a phenomenal phono. TBF it's had the op-amp upgraded but I remember the original being no slouch either.
messengerman
pfm Member
TBH I can't remember - I wasn't using my record player with the Creek for its final years. The old one might've been better but equally it could simply be that the Sansui shows the modern one up. I have a Berning preamp which for a time was a reference jobby for Stereophile. Their reviewer doesn't say much about the Berning stage other than it is "very fine". But FMM the Sansui beats that stage hands down too so perhaps I'm being a little unkind to the new Creek one. Absent the G8000 it might not have caught my attention because the two amps are equally good in many other ways. The Creek edges some things the Sansui others.
lordibiza
pfm Member
Hi.
Those that I have always liked and that I have had in my house, some are still with me:
Lavardin isx reference
Copland ct401
Mastersound 211
Audia Flight FL3S
Exposure 2010S2
I would really like to hear the int25 Pass. I had an Aleph 3 that I fell in love with a few years ago.
Those that I have always liked and that I have had in my house, some are still with me:
Lavardin isx reference
Copland ct401
Mastersound 211
Audia Flight FL3S
Exposure 2010S2
I would really like to hear the int25 Pass. I had an Aleph 3 that I fell in love with a few years ago.
KeithL
pfm Member
Prompted me to fire up my NAD C326BEE. After a warm up period of about 5 hours it just didn't deliver. It's not a patch on the Creek. It's totally flat and one dimensional. Maybe mine needs some TLC.
S-Man
StrivingON
The C325 is a current feedback power amp the C326 is a more traditional topology. They both use poor quality components. The 326 looks like a cost reduced version of the 325 to me.
Maybe this explains the difference in sound? Or we just hear things differently?
The owner of the two amps uses the Creek in his main system and the NAD in his workshop system. And he's an actual real, live, working classical musician.
Maybe this explains the difference in sound? Or we just hear things differently?
The owner of the two amps uses the Creek in his main system and the NAD in his workshop system. And he's an actual real, live, working classical musician
.
contarex56
Active Member
Yes but the point is that you have two types of Exposure X. One with a MC phono board one with a MM phono board.Like most of the Onix before the Pre Onix 24. You cannot have MM and MC in the same Onix amplifier. The advantage of the Exposure X is that compared with the combinations VI/ VII /VIII you have an integrated amplifier. The Exposure is really different it has a darker sound than the Onix and than the early combos Exposure VI/VII/VIII. If I had to choose only one integrated amplifier it would be the Onix21s... really small and with a superb midrange - if your taste is jazz or female voices - it is the best.The combo two psu VI- pre VII and power amp IV by Exposure costs much more and takes so much place but nice sound fo sure.
