Creek CD60 - The God of TDA1541a

Can it be true?    Do I really hold the rarest of rares in my sweaty grasp?

Yes, for it was written in the stars!

Behold, the Creek CD60!

Philips TDA1541a Single Crown, CDM-4 Transport, BurrBrown OPamps, Toroidial Transformer, Extremely well regulated power supply (15 regulators), Thick steel enclosure and nice small square rubber feet on the bottom.



No fuss and no nonsense on the outside but under the hood this baby looks like heaven. The PCB is the same size as the player! The build quality is like Naim but from a small cottage industry style company in Scotland.

No fancy connections here, just a kettle lead in the back, SPdif output, if needed, and a pair of phono connectors, nice and simple. It also has a remote which is a nice slim lightweight model from philips. You will notice there's few buttons on the front of this player and the remote has little more to offer. There is no random button or the ability to program a sequence of tracks in an order of preference.... GOOD!



This is a "sit down, shut up and strap ya-self in" kinda player, designed with the most discerning audiophile in mind. The looks are sleek and crisp, it looks hand made but industrial at the same time. The whole player oozes a feel of "simply built the right way", the ultimate cottage industry philosophy. No cost cutting, no marketing rubbish, just pure honest design and the knowledge that someone took pride in what they did.

The buttons on the front are not the normal feather touch buttons we find everywhere else, but the clever use of non-latching switches instead. These switches are most common as a latching variant and can be found in a huge percentage of electrical goods as, the main power button. They give a really nice feel to the operation of the machine and such a simple idea, if only more had done the same.



Sound is first class, everything I love about the TDA shinning through and yet it remains clean and crisp while retaining that warmth we all crave. I had a short experience with the Cambridge Audio CD3 and I have to say I'm glad it was short. The upper mid and treble were a little over powering and contained a "frosty" quality that I couldn't get along with.

The Creek has some of that Ice but it retains a perfect balance. I couldn't describe it as "musical", in fact I find it very hard to characterize the sound at all. "Ah, I've got it" neutral.

Its a good player but I seldom feel the urge to player it, maybe the non-oversampling mod and some work to the output stage would improve the musical aspect but I resist the temptation. For now...

Until the next time guys...

B&W DM-70

Domestic Monitor 70

These were acquired from a friend. I was sent a picture message of them and that's it, they were mine. How could I resist those amazing looks! The curves, the circle in the middle, that black panel on top and dont get me started on the matching stands. And its not just the looks, the few bits of info I could find looked very promising.

12" bass drivers made by E.M.I. and a curved electrostatic panel on top. Panel made from several small panels firing out in an array. Nearly 2" thick ply baffles steamed and clamped to create a curved baffle. Bolt on, sand filled stands and a mains leads hanging out the back.

These were highly respected in their time and were the flagship offering from B&W. These speakers with such style and finesse are what turned B&W into one of the big boys. Sony was so taken with the 70s that they sold them under their name. You sometimes see speakers just like mine here but with Sony badges. I believe there is still a plate on the back of the panel which says B&W.



You can often find them on ebay but finding a nice pair, fully working and near enough for collection is hard. They go for good money but still cheap in comparison to the modern day equivalent. Its always nice to get things in good condition but I've never seen a mint pair of these. Foam on the drivers always goes and the veneer around the baffle starts flaking off in big chunks. Quite often faults in the panel resulting in popping noises and a drop in output volume.

So when buying, remember:                   POP - FLAKE - ROT

Here the drivers are awaiting re-foaming, notice the perfectly matched meter readings. Checkout the crazy over sized crossover in the middle below.

                         

This pair had some veneer flaking but I was able to stick most of it back down and soaking the cab in linseed oil finished it off, now they are perfectly fine.

to the right:  The electrostatic power supply - high voltage inside!  The lead is short and trust me, that thing dont stretch.

The sound is good, plenty of bass and good open mid-band. Top end is extended and well defined, stereo image is a little fuzzy but overall a very good musical presentation. Are they worth the money? Well yes but you're going to need a big room to get their best.

Choosing the Best Vintage Drive Units for DIY Speakers.

How on earth do you choose which drivers to use when you have little to no technical information on the units you have available?

This is a tough one because everybody has their own taste and may require their speakers to do different things. Some may be looking for volume, others may want accuracy or maybe you'd rather an easy listening setup you can enjoy for hours. There are also other factors to consider, like budget, time frame and the physical size. Also there is a question of wood-working/electronics skills and available tools.

So lets assume you are somebody who has a fair collection of drivers and you want to build a musical system with good bass at low volumes and you don't want to spend your life savings on it. Lets say you have basic wood working skills and you have a ruff idea about speaker cross overs.

I'm of the opinion that a very good two way speaker can be achieved, and quite easily too, if you have a good source of drivers to experiment with and you don't crave a perfect flat response.

My ideal two way would be something like an 8" bass/mid in a tl and an open back tweeter sitting on top. I'd simply use a first order crossover but this will make choosing your drivers quite difficult. You want the tweeter to go fairly low aswell so you can take advantage of the "open back sound".

I think most of us would agree that a three way is going to achieve the best results so I will focus on this design method. However I'm going to suggest a rather unorthodox method for choosing drivers.

First driver to pick is the mid-range. you need to play it naked, no crossover, no cabinet. Try to keep in mind that its the mid-range were listening for, if you like the sound as it is you have a good starting point. If you don't like the sound then don't waste time on it, smash it up with a hammer and find another driver.



If you play a kef B110 naked it sounds fairly naff, well, it is a bass driver after all. However if you play an old Philips AlNiCo or an EMI ect, you should find it quite satisfying. Please don't use dome mid-ranges here unless you really like them for some reason. You want to try and go paper cone, with paper surround and AlNiCo if you like.

Now you need a tweeter. I do a similar thing as the mid but I use a single capacitor in series with the tweeter to protect it. I would start with a 4.7uf for 8ohm tweeter and keep the volume low. Try and pick several tweeter options from this test so you can choose the "perfect one" latter on. A Kef T27 sounds like crap here but a pair of decent paper cone open backs should sound glorious. Open back tweeters can be hard to find but a decent AlNiCo dome like the one below will work very well in most cases.



PLEASE NOTE: If you have a 16ohm tweeter the 4.7uf cap wont filter as well so I would use a 2uf. Likewise, if you have a 4ohm tweeter the 4.7uf could filter too much and you wont get the natural sound of the tweeter.

Now you need a bass driver. Go no smaller than an 8" and personally I would use a kef b200 if your other drivers are of similar sensitivity. When choosing a bass driver you want a very low resonance. If you hold the speaker to your ear and tap the edge of the cone you will hear a nice bass thud. The lower the tone the better. I always look for something around 20-30hz but the cabinet you place it in later will change this value. A small sealed box will increase the resonant frequency. So if your building a small bookshelf speaker, a driver with 60hz resonance will be fine. I personally would only ever use a transmission line for the bass because I can't resist that deep rumble organ bass.

Now you have at least three drivers, you can have a quick listen to them all together using an existing 3-way crossover network from an old speaker system. If you hear peaks in the spectrum, try reversing the polarity of the drivers until it sounds right. This is only ruff but you should be getting an idea of how well matched your selected drivers are in terms of sensitivity.

From this you should now have three drivers your happy with. Now you need to build your enclosure and I'm leaving that part up to you. But lets say you are using a transmission line for the bass and the mid and tweeter will sit on top open back.

Fit your drivers in place and start the lengthy process of making your crossover, by ear if you're feeling brave. Building a speaker in this way means you are constantly  playing with values and you really get a feel for what the individual components are doing. I have been playing with crossovers for months in some cases. You can of course use a cross-over calculator which are plentiful online. These don't allow for the sound you will actually hear in your listening room but are certainly a very good starting point.

Im sure many will disagree with this method of building speakers but Its more fun and you can tailor the sound to your preference. Would you rather sit on the computer looking at numbers or sit on the floor surrounded with vintage drivers?

Let the MUSIC flow!

The Capacitor Clock is Ticking

I'm afraid I bring bad news for all vintage hi-fi enthusiasts. We are reaching an apocalypses moment and it is vital we all recognize this problem and address it before its too late.

All of your Hi-Fi components contain electronic components and one of the most common and important components are: CAPACITOR components...

I won't get bogged down in explaining what capacitors are because I don't have the time or anywhere near enough technical knowledge. But basically, they are used to smooth out currents in power supplies, frequency filtering, oscillation ect.

They come in many different types but the most common is the Electrolytic Capacitor. Again, Im not going into too much detail here but an electrolytic capacitor is essentially a metal can filled with paper soaked in Electrolyte.

Electrolyte is a chemical, a liquid, and liquids will dry up over time. When the electrolyte in a capacitor dries up, the value of the capacitor will change and eventually the capacitor will fail.

If a capacitor fails, it could have devastating effects on your equipment, damaging other comments in the circuit. This means high repair bills and in some cases, where replacement components are not available, can lead to you owning a rather expensive door stop.

If you own an amplifier from the 70's, its now reaching 40 years old and the capacitors inside will be way past their best. So the clock is ticking and if you do nothing the amp will eventually fail.

Do not fear though, there is light at the end of the tunnel, two lights in fact.

You can have an amplifier "re-capped", in other words, new capacitors through-out. It is a little expensive but there are two plus sides.

One: you have saved your amplifier from failing and hopefully this cherished gem will give another 40 years of faithful service.
Two: The sound improvement will be considerable and you will be able to enjoy your music like never before.

So there you have it guys and the same goes for capacitors in passive speaker crossovers. So pick up a soldering iron and do those ya self. You simply replace like for like, there's no high voltages to fry yourself with, and the sound improvements will be appreciated.

Amazing Alnico Speakers

First off, what are we even talking about?

Well, we mean the type of magnet used in a speaker drive unit. Any conventional driver will use a magnet. There are two types commonly used: AlNiCo and Ceramic.

There's quite a fan base for these vintage drive units and many claim they sound better than ceramic speakers. The question is do they actually sound better and if so why? This stir in the HiFi underworld appears to have been noticed by today's companies, who now offer their own AlNiCo units. So is there something in it?

What is Al-Ni-Co (Aluminum-Nickel-Cobalt)

Its an alloy magnet system and was very common in the 60s. Its more expensive than ceramic magnet material, so logic would dictate that it was used for a reason. Saba, Isophon, Goodmans, all top manufactures back in the day and all of them used AlNiCo magnets in many of their drive units.

"the AlNiCo sound"

This is all about compression and it only happens due to the nature of the AlNiCo magnet.


AlNiCo magnet has a delicate magnetic field, easilly drained by other forces. So when you send a signal to the voice coil in a speaker, you are generating an opposite magnetic field. The field generated in the coil pushes away from the AlNiCo field, causing the cone to push out. When you swap the polarity, the reversal happens.

The field in the coil is also interacting with the AlNiCo, it looses some of its power as the coils field is present.

When playing music, the louder the volume the greater the field in the coil. The AlNiCo magnet is constant but the coils field is jumping around and switching direction. The bigger the coils field, the more power sapped from the AlNiCo.








So to recap, when the fields are interfering, the voice coil field weakens the AlNiCo magnets field. As you increase the signal, the greater you weaken the AlNiCo.

If you weaken the magnet on a speaker, it becomes less efficient (you get less output volume). This is happening with every movement of the voice coil, tiny tiny amounts and at extremely high speeds.

So the AlNiCo magnet system is smoothing the sound, or, to be more accurate, compressing.

So there is a difference with AlNiCo speakers and to my ears they do sound "better" but of course there are many other elements to a speaker and a well designed ceramic speaker will sound better than a poorly designed AlNiCo.

The Best Amplifier on Earth

Please tell everyone which Amplifier you love / loved the most.

<3

The Best Turn-Table on Earth

Please tell everyone which Turn-Table you love / loved the most

<3

The Best Speakers on Earth

Please tell everyone which speakers you love / loved the most

<3

QUAD ESL-63 Electrostatic Speakers

I was walking round a boot fair one day and what stood before my mortal eyes? 

Quad ESL-63... Life is good sometimes...

Got them home, plugged them in, gave them an hour to warm up. Sadly there was some slight popping from one but I had to push on and hear what these could do. I had a Sansui BA-2000 hanging around so I used this to test them, I also used my Creek CD60 as a source.

I was hoping for something amazing from these as the little research Id done had revealed a wealth of information and dedicated fan base for these lovely speakers. Some were even calling the ESL-63 the best speaker of all time.

From the moment I first heard them I knew they were different from anything Id heard before. The sound was so open and realistic. The top end was smooth yet detailed but maybe lacking a little in the extreme. The bass was very impressive, in the right position with good equipment, you wont be disappointed. I was having a whale of a time but I couldn't help but feel there was something wrong. I was enjoying the listening experience but I grew a little tired of the sound-stage. Everything was so everywhere for me, I could hear all the instruments but struggled to pin point their position in the stereo image. I also knew that they would never blow my socks off or shake the house with transmission line rumble.

 

So how would I sum up these wonderful speakers that people pay thousands for?   Easy

If you have the money and you love that electrostatic sound, I'd go for these because Im sure nothing will bring you more electrostatic pleasure than these or maybe the more mellow sounding ESL-57? 

I'm no electrostatic expert but on the rare occasions I've heard them, I always feel the same: nice but not what I'm looking for.

 

So overall a wonderful sound and a great musical presentation. Lovely warm bass which must extend down to 40hz at times. Such a smooth sound but with all of the detail, a very tricky balance but the confused stereo image did spoil things for me a little. If you like jazz and classical you're in for a real treat and these would certainly then be one of the greatest speakers ever but personally I remain firmly perched on the fence.

Until the next time...

Bowers & Wilkins DM1

A few weeks ago I came across a pair of DM1 speakers in a local cash converters. My eyes lit up when I spotted them but I was soon put off when I saw a price tag of £100 on them. Dam, what a shame I thought. I made them a silly offer but left empty handed.

When I got home I was surprised to see that the DM1 were fetching more money than I had previously thought and £100 wasn't that unreasonable after all.

Anyway, today I have returned home with them safely wrapped up in blankets. They have a few marks here and there but overall very good condition and more importantly the drivers are all working.

The Domestic Monitor 1 - circa 1968

3 way infinite baffle, EMI bass driver, Celestion HF-1300 MKII and Coles super tweeter.

This was one of the first mass production speaker designs from B&W, along with the DM3. There was an earlier model called the P1 which used an EMI and Celestion in a two way big box design. The sales from the P1 were used to purchase test equipment which was used to accurately measure the new speaker designs, namely DM1 and DM3.



First off, the EMI bass driver. I can't tell you just how good EMI drivers are. Most people are aware of the fiber glass materials used in the cone construction but what you don't hear so often is the dual cone materials. The middle of the cone is made from a piece of thin aluminium and then a paper/glass fiber cone is fitted around that, yes "around it". EMI drivers are simply divine, made by master craftsmen and appreciated only by the most discerning "music" lovers.

Now, the EMI used in this system is 10x6" and it has 4 foam squares to lower the cones resonance. According to sources on the net, each square weighs 1g. Also the cones surround is some kind of polymer/pvc material with a narrow double rolled edge.

As the unit is mated with a HF-1300 you know there's going to be a fair bit of mid-range produced by the EMI and its glorious!



The HF-1300 is the MKII version which is a different kettle of fish compared to the standard 4ohm cheap version found in later Dittons. The MKII has AlNiCo magnet system and is 16ohms (I think).



The Super Tweeter is usually a Coles 4001g but the earlier models have a slightly different version with different suspension, a hole in the center pole and a flattened dome. The assembly is slightly recessed into the face plate aswell. I don't know exactly what they are but these are the ones to have. Watch out though, they will blow if your not careful.

I'm listening to these as I type and I'm sure many of you will be interested to hear how they sound. Well, I had fairly high hopes as people had been comparing these to Rogers Ls3/5a and other well established speakers. I have also seen people calling the DM1 a BBC monitor but I have found no evidence of that "yet".



The sound, is breathtaking! The first second I heard them, I knew they were special. The mid-range is very lush. Imagine bubbles made from a very sticky liquid popping in your ear. They are very open with extremely good top end response. The bass is a little shy but I honestly don't care, they are sublime and the bass is all there just not the earth shattering stuff. The bass is clean and clear, the whole presentation is very fresh and yet musical. I don't want to ever unplug them!



Personally I'd never use a pair of Ls3/5a instead of these, Im not saying the Rogers are not as good but I could never love them like I love these.

This is me - In a state of bliss. Untill the next time guys...