I have a Creek Evolution 50 CD player and it is smooth, images well and does everything well. I had a $4500 AVM CD player and the Creek at $1600 is better... much better. The AVM was ruthlessly revealing and made many CD's (of great music) un-listenable --- and on the Creek those same CD's sound good. The Creek pleasantly rounds off and takes the edginess and digititus off most redbook cd's and leaves a warm engaging sound to enjoy. Is it colored? Yes. That is a good thing when older redbook CD's are your staple. Many of the best reviewed CD players and DACs are too revealing, too anayltical and when you listen to redbook cd's often sound harsh. Such players --- uncolored as they are -- sound great with audiophile disks but put on a 60's RVG Jazz CD and your ears will bleed. So a warm, lush, and yes colored CD player is nice. At its price point, the Creek is rather amazing.
