Forty-Something: 1982 Creek CAS 4040 Amp Meets Its 2022 Successor
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2024
- In this episode, Mike and David remember the classic early eighties Creek CAS 4040 integrated amplifier - and praise its sweet, smooth and musical sound. Even by today's standards, it's a cracker of an entry-level integrated, they reckon.
To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of its release, Mike Creek has launched a brand new replacement. The guys get a scoop-tastic first look and listen - and compare it closely to its illustrious ancestor.
The verdict is that - although a very different beast in technical terms, it's as impressive in today's budget amplifier market as the original. Watch out for a full, in-depth review of the new CAS 4040 at a later date...
Each episode of Hi-Fi Riff features the guys' unedited, unexpurgated views about all manner of weird and wonderful hi-fi designs.
Business executive Mike has a wealth of knowledge from his earlier hi-fi retail years, and David has written about hi-fi for thirty years. Now Editor-in-Chief of StereoNET, he's picked up a few things along the way.
So brew up a cuppa or crack open a can, and relax and enjoy some one-take hi-fi riffing - and please leave your comments below. Oh, and don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button, this one goes up to eleven!
The eighties-tastic title tune is called ‘UFO/Mike’s Jumper’, and used with the express permission of our old pal and rights holder Simon Lythe.
Lovely to listen to, I still have my Creek 4040 bought in Uxbridge in 1982 for £99, delivered by Mike Creek himself, together with a Dual 505-2 , still going strong at my parents house. A pleasure to this day and a testament to the quality of Mike's abilities.
Another facinating conversation gents, thank you. I never had the pleasure of this unit as I was a Roksan Xerxes / Musical Fidelity guy in the mid eighties and wouldnt have parted with my b200 and a1 units. Its lovely to hear of hifi history I lived through but was unaware of!
Thanks again for another enjoyable piece 😀
I have a 4140 S2; use it everyday. (T40 Tuner too)- with a pair of Mission 70 MkIIs
Excellent lads
I sold these and visited Mike at his home/factory in north London. His wife was helping to box these up!
A really great trip down memory lane chaps I had this amazing little amp amp back in the day, the green logo series 2 model and total loved it for about 3yrs before I got the upgraded itch, i have to say big respect to you both for your totally unbelievable memory recall of products names and there model numbers 😀 is this amazing feat of memory recall 100% genuine or do you both do a bit of research before you start filming 🎥 I say this as I'm 54 yrs old and my own memory is shot to pieces 😀
Thanks Nick. It's a bit of both. I make some 'show notes' beforehand and send them to Mike - but we often don't use them and/or just veer off into some other topic. As for memory, I can remember vast amounts of hi-fi, music and other such trivia but often can't recall what I did the day before!
Nicely done as always guys. 👍
Thank you both for the hi-fi education.
Jim 🏴🙂
I was never so wrong about anything else than the Creek 4040. I was convinced the price and build quality would kill it. I was convinced the public would be wary of it. Reviews seemed to play it down. None the less it sold. Like the Mini it suited people. It was ridiculously good value. I had one of the first. Mike felt that the design of the tone controls made them better than most. In his opinion done correctly they do no harm and often do good. After all a RIAA circuit is a tone control.
Thank you guys for another excellent riff/review. I'd also love to thank you for turning me on to Creek amplifiers. I just picked up an Evolution 50 integrated in as new condition. WOW! That was my first reaction upon hearing it compared to my Audiolab 6000A. The Evo 50 is most definitely playing in another league. This one's going to be with me for quite a while. Love it! Keep up the good work. I like your style.
I'm still using my 4040 that I purcahsed for £115.00 back in April '84 from The Sound Organisation just behind Southark Cathedral (no longer there) in London Bridge. Imagine how many times the average 'upgrader' has changed his amp since then. It really serves it's purpose albeit with a somewhat hard and abrasive bass but because I'm so used to it, I can't fault it really. Partnering it with a pair of fairly mellow Castle Richmonds that I've had for years rounds off the harshness of the Creek. The current trends with many hifi seperates doesn't inspire me a great deal to change so unless I hear an improvement with perhaps a used second hand amp, I may just settle for what I've got until in finally gives up the ghost.
I love Creek stereo amplifiers. I own a 2006 a50iR model. In future, I will definitely buy 4040 or 4330. Greeting from Poland!
Great video! I tried a 4140 a few years ago and it was great fun and especially enjoyable with 70s rock played on a Valhalla/Ittok/K9. Also not bad with Kans as it boosts the mid bass a bit.
Love your channel- Two hifi legends taking us back to the golden era. I bought the NAD 3020i in the late 80's and always wanted a Creek. Nowadays I use a Nord Hypex amp, but still drag out the recently restored Musical Fidelity A1 to get truly back to basics.
Keep up the great work, the passion and knowledge is so great to watch.
Oh the irony! I bought a Creek 4240 but always wanted a NAD 3020. The 3020 is just ridiculously overpriced and hard to find.
I still have Creek 4040 s.2 which I bought 25 years ago, second hand, with a new Planar 3 and Kef Coda 7s. I often consider upgrading but I have no idea what I would need to spend to get my money's worth. I worked in a hi fi shop from 1988 to 1990 and other favourites were the Onix amps and NVA
Much as I'll happily share the CAS4040-love, I was somewhat put off by the Amstrad source-selection buttons on the early amps. That said, £99 wasn't that much more than the price of an actual Amstrad amp.
Makes sense now that I know about Mike Creek's Amstrad and Ambit International connections.
To be fair, the CAS 4040 was very much built down to a price. Although you wouldn't know when you listened to it...
@@MrVinylista That’s got me wondering whether the original ‘chipboard and Fablon’ Amstrads were as bad as imagined.
The later so-called ‘Executive Series’ really did look crappy because they tried and failed to emulate the style and proportions of contemporary Japanese products which had fabulously good build quality, at least in the matters of their appearance and tactile interface.
My only hands-on experience with the earlier Amstrads was two 3000 Mk.2 FM/MW/LW tuners bought from Comet for £25 each circa 1980.
In the cause of research, I connected up the surviving example this evening. DIN connections, just like Naim, and a foreign mains plug which was changed in short order. Turned on, tuned in, and - dammit - it worked. Not perfectly, but that might be down to the aerial. Many years before, I’d had a look inside and discovered that the RCA CA3089 FM-IF chip was the same as used in my Quad FM3; the Amstrad has a RCA CA3090AQ decoder chip, which I’m told is a later equivalent for the Quad’s Motorola MC1310.
In the pre-DAB and internet radio days, when I used the Amstrad and Quad in different rooms, there wasn’t a huge difference in performance between the two tuners. I found the Amstrad sound more upfront, with better “showroom appeal” than the Quad, but not necessarily more tonally accurate or liveable.
I used to own a 4140 back in the day. I found it had a warmish midband,but the treble stuck out a little relatively speaking.Quite a short lived item in my HiFi journey.There was a certain lushness about it's sound,but I preferred the clarity of the Audiolab 8000A ,which I brought in as the replacement soon after.
I have one that I acquired brand new-in-box last year. I’ve paired it with a Rega P3 with power supply and a set of warfdale diamonds (again, new in box). It’s a very musical, sweet sounding and warm system. Love it.
Lovely amp. His tuners were pretty good for the money too. I still have a 3140 in a similar style of case, with weetabix construction ;-)
I bought an LP12 with a CAS4040, it sounded great.
Bought my cas4040 in early 80s from Billy Vee's on Lee High Road, shop still there and amp still pumping.
Just discovered your channel guys. Great video👍 it brings back memories. David, I remember your superb reviews from when you wrote for the now defunct & sadly missed Hifi World with Noel Keywood. My very first amp was the Creek 4040 the 1st series the one with white lettering. I went into Doug Bradys Hifi on Smithdown Rd in Liverpool with the intention of buying the NAD or the Marantz PM310 with a pair of KEF Codas 2s. Ended up with the Creek & a pair of Maurdant Short MS20's, cos the combination sounded bloody fantastic with my brand new TT of the time. I apologies that I've not heard of you Mike, but as you have Exposure amps you may have similar taste to me. I still have my Exposure Super XV Intergrated as I still can't find a more modern amp under £2.5K that is better sounding with my Gyrodec. Any suggestions guys? 🙂😁👍
Great review. Remember the early 80's in hifi well, it was all about the source back then so get the context of the original cas 4040. Question: Does this have a record out for analogue or digital recording devices?
I had a phono stage from Creek at one point. OBH-15 MK11. Crazy good for the money. I should have kept it...
I remember reviewing it for Hi-Fi World - it was a cracker! Stupidly cheap, I seem to recall...
@@MrVinylista It was a lot better than a famous brand I tried at the time, at 3 time the price. More punch, more nuance, more silent background. Lesson learned!
@@gaetancharbonneau3902 You mean you listened to a product before buying it? You mad fool! ;-)
The Creek OBH-8 mk2 is very hard to beat at its price, it has a good quiet power supply and very little background noise. Have a listen....
Guys love the video & I've had my Exposure X since 1987 & I would not change it for the world.. So I hope you can let me know when you do have the Exposure X for your review which I would love to hear what you say about it.
Back circa 1983 a flat earth dealer- Chris Brooks- sold a ton of his entry level system...LP12/Ittok/Basik cartridge/4040 amp and Linn Kans. I heard this a few times and it was stunning in the way it tracked dynamics and inflections.
Creek 3040 then 3140, then T40 were the tuners. All excellent. Thanks Gents.
Ive got the tuner if anyone wants it upgraded to naim tuner
Love your channel. Any thoughts on Sonneteer Alabaster integrated amplifier?
I haven't reviewed this I'm afraid, Omar. But I did do the Campion for Hi-Fi World, back in the mists of time - and really liked it.
Continuing my "not a lot of people know this..." theme, I once worked with Haider Bahrani - Sonneteer's founder and MD - at Hi-Fi World!
He was, if memory serves, an editorial assistant there when I was a contributor, circa late 1990s.
He struck me as a very smart guy who knew his stuff and took sound quality very seriously.
@@MrVinylista Thank you David.
So..........any more opinions on what you heard of the new 4040A, would be appreciated with its up coming release. Especially as we have a pre-order wait down 'ere in New Zealand.
Hi Aaron - we have the 4040A on demo in our showroom - super sounding little product - and so small - it does not shy away from 4 ohms either.
👍
Brilliant review …so glad its not just me ,ive tried far too many amps over the years to try and reach the next level musical heaven ..but never got there , latest Hegel 120 back on ebAy …my old trusty 4040s2 comes out and blows it away …i tried all the creek oldies but the s2 , i purchased from Billy Vee sound systems in the 80,s is that bit special …toe tapping is unstoppable and soundstage is huge , detail like you say not comparable to likes of naim etc but musical involvement is so good .I used a planar p2 and Rtl3 floorstanders ….bi wired helped a lot keep bass stable …and open up sound a little ….using a bluesound streamer now and some bookshelf speakers but not really good enough for the amp …i also had the creek destiny , sold it on …im not sure what it is about the S2 ..i believe is class B not AB …which shouldn’t be as good as AB …..but whatever it is the man Mike creek …thank you
Nytek from Bristol
Exposure x class amp lol
A Creek amp that is Class D, has Bluetooth, and is made in China is not a Creek.
Class D was a compromise a few years ago but not now, just have a listen....