Adcom or Creek?

Hi Josh,

It all depends upon funds. If funds are tight, I would never recommend tubes. You can get a nice old Perreaux SM-2 preamp for a few dollars, replace the 2 modular bridge rectifiers with Freds, the other diodes in the power supply with low noise UF4007 diodes, and all the caps, other than the 12 big PS caps, with Black Gate caps, I guarantee you a killer preamp with a great little phono stage. You can use Nichicon's audiophile grade caps in the power supply to save a couple more bucks. It will not be as great as the best, but it certainly will be better than a lot of highly touted gear.

If you want to spend a little more and get a remote, the GFP-750 with Black Gate caps, and soft recovery low noise diodes would be the way to go. As for Adcom being grainy, I have hated Adcom gear most of my life, nevertheless, Stan Warren can make it sound pretty awesome.

Well I tried the Adcom direct from the CD player using the variable out on the player, sounded reasonable but not terribly revealing?

My main complaint was that the thing was actually too hot to touch (4 ohm speakers?), which is a problem as space is tight - as well as money!.

Since the unit weighs about 20lbs it is really too much to stack on top and too hot to put under anything. Currntly I don't have space for a proper rack. I live in a shoebox in San Francisco..

So decision made, Keep the Creek, and the Adcom goes.

I think a DAC is next on shopping list, the Art DIO at $118 looks like a good canditate. Does need a mod to bring the voltage down from 7+ volts...

Or if I can find one I'd love the Musical Fidelity X-24 DAC...

Thx for the helpful advice and cheers,
Josh

Hi Josh,

I would not bother with the Art DI/O. I tried one and Boulder Cable did all they could do to it, but it was pretty unimpressive. One of the late 80 Sony ES top of the line single CDP's will give you better sound, but if you are going that far, just save your pennies and buy a GCD-750, change out the modular bridges for fred based bridges, and the 1N400? diodes for UF4007's. Replace the 1000uF, was it 50V O/P caps with Black Gates. If this is just too much, then get an Adcom 700 DAC and mod it. The GCD-750 would, IMO, be the equal of most, if not any, Stereophile class "A" rated CDPs.

Lou

I agree with Lou 3rd. I've been using a slightly tweaked SM-2 for a long while and it sounds great, with a very nice phono section to boot. I've slipped it into various systems and it has compared well with many highly rated preamps without the need to trade in your car. Totally reliable. Lou was also right about the 750. Not sure if it's worth the extra cost though. Perreaux build quality is excellent and Dan up in Buffalo is great if you ever need help.

Hi Miles,

Depends, upon system resolution, etc. I am not sure what you mean about extra cost though. I am going to assume that you mean over the cost of a DI/O, You can have my DI/O it is garbage! The voltage regulator went in it, and it is such junk that I am not even going to repair and sell it, I think I would be doing someone a disservice.... The GCD-750 is very good stock, but moded through my Acoustat Spectra 3300's it was on par with my Bidat, which is one of the best DACs ever made IMO. I do need to test it with cone speakers to be sure, the Acoustats can be partial to some odd gear.... :-)

Best Regards,

Lou