Creek or Cyrus?

[admin_exported]

At present l have a Pair of Epos M5i's being driven by a stand in old Yamaha 550 amp & adapted Arcam Alpha CD5; cables are all DNM.

I have narrowed the choice of future CD/AMP to either the Creel Evo combo OR something from Cyrus, from 3, 5 marks.

Any opinions?

 

[John Duncan]

Creek fan here, and obvious Epos synergy.

 

[Anonymous]

Creek! Great kit and perfect for Epos!!!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

igglebert:Creek! Great kit and perfect for Epos!!!

The Evo amp is as good as it gets for under £500 and Creek and Epos? As the guys say....

 

[Anonymous]

The Creek Evo combo would be the obvious choice with your EPOS speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, I have the old M5 speakers with evo amp and arcam cd192. I also can confirm that they go very well together. I was recomended the amp by one of the guys above, and can confirm that its a great amp upto £500. I went onto the superfi website and got it for £345, but if you get in touch with creek via their website, they have ex dem amps and cd players, so you would get a good deal with them.

If they don't have any on there, send them a mail, and they will notify you when some come available, ie after one of their trade shows.

Phil

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks people,

always good to get the opinion in the way you wre thinking?! If you know what l mean.

suduct10n, l've seen the deal from Superfi with the cd/amp deal for £850ish, though not as low as you got, for the amp alone.

 

[Anonymous]

I used to own the Evo CDP. It's a great CDP, more transparent than the Arcam DC73, with a broader soundstage, more precise imaging, and a faster and weightier bottom end. The top end however has a metallic quality which can be disturbing if the speakers are too bright. The Arcam has a more natural timbre, a rounder sound, and it provides better detail and attack on mid and low-mid frequencies.

But I don't particularly like the Evo amp. I've tried it several times at home (the Creek distributor in my country is a friend of mine), and I think it's too agressive on the treble. I think there is too much distorsion going on up there. Probably, it's a design decision (I remember reading once on HFC that a bit of distorsion could actually give the impression of more speed to the sound). I've never been able to relax listening to the Evo amp. It just gets on my nerves. I admit it's a capable amp, plenty of detail, with excellent timing, a strong and fast bass, good imaging, etc. But for me it has a very irritating voice, just as those american girls you see on E Entertainment TV!

The best combination for me is to use the Creek Evo CDP, which is transparent and so retrieves all the information from the CD (if you don't do that from the source, the information is lost forever), and to match it with a warmer, rounder, softer, weightier amp. This way you have both resolution, transparency, speed (from the Evo CDP), and a fuller and more amable sound, from the amp.

At least that's what worked for me.

BTW, have any of the Evo owners noticed the smell they have? It's like gasoline. I asked a technician why they smell like this. He told me it's because of the circuit boards they use. They are of the lesser quality available, and practically no one uses them anymore...except for some chinese factories. I've had other chinese equipment (Advance Acoustics) which also has that smell.

And I could not identify any brand on the capacitors. At least entry level models from Arcam use Rubycon!

I'm not trying to look down on the Creek brand; actually I am and have been a Creek owner. I'm just giving some information.

 

[Anonymous]

Never smelt anything from my Creeks, although I don't tend to go around smelling electronics

 

[drummerman]

I assume your budget is around £800 or so. I'd consider either selling your M5i's and with the surplus money get some AVI ADM9.1's, then either use your old player as transport or purchase Airport Express and use your pc/laptop as source.

Alternatively I'd get Roksan's new Kandy K2 amplifier and a DacMagic. Use your old player or dvd player as transport.

 

[noeluk]

Hi there

I heard theÿEpos M5i's with Cyrus 6 CD & Amp a few weeks ago. VERY open and detailed sound, but too aggressive in the mid-range for me. ÿI played Feist's 'My Moon My Man' (the vocal has a slight 'telephone' effect) and the result was rather harsh.

The Cyrus combo also stripped theÿEpos M5i's of any bass unless you crank up the volume. I imagine they'd be great for warmer acoustic or classical tracks.ÿ

Anyway, that's what I thought. I haveÿnot heard the Creek. ÿ