Opinions of Creek Integrated 5350se


Please tell me what you know and think of the Creek 5350se.

I listen to a very wide variety of music - anything from Black Sabbath to Loreena McKennitt to Beethoven to Rap and over to techno. All over the map, as you can see. I like having an open, airy sound with a sense of presence. I like my sound to be tight and have good pace. I also like to have a good amount of bass (not boomy, however). I auditioned the Creek with its matching cd player and a pair of Epos speakers (M12, i think). I liked the sound and the bass was quite good, but not quite enough for my liking. That combo was very revealing and quite to my liking, but again, i restate that the bass wasn't quite enough. I also listened to a Naim system with Neat speakers and THAT system was a few notches punchier with lower range bass. It had a very lively sound that had me tapping my foot in no time, but again, there was something about it which made me have to question whether or not I would want something like that at home. And again with the Naim system, the bass was not as low as i would have liked (although it was very, VERY controlled).

Is it possible that I'm not ready for that level of performance?

I'm planning on using the Creek with a pair of NHT 2.5i's and a Rotel RCD 971 cd player.

These speakers and cd player might be replaced eventually.
Currently, I'm using a Nakamichi AV10 receiver, but I feel it is without a doubt the bottleneck of my system (and i do realize that the systems i mentioned above are MUCH higher resolution than what i have.

In a nutshell, I'm wondering if the creek would be good with the 2.5i's and the rotel. Would a naim nait 5 drive the 2.5i's?

Ok, i'm done with my ramblings...

thanks in advance.

Stephen
loose
Stephen...your right...I was thinking of the Creek 4330 mkII amp..which goes for $600...roughly the same as the NAD c370..sorry for the confusion...
A couple of amps "with balls" that might satisfy your bass desire (these are obscure brit amps that IMHO are much better than creek or NAD):
1) Hard to find Cyrus2/3 with external PSX power supply. You must have the external power supply to get enough power, but these guys really pack a bass punch.
2) Audiolab 8000C/P or even better 8000C/8000M/8000M monoblock arrangement. Can sometimes be had for good prices since they're relatively unknown in the US. The monoblocks have scary amounts of power and are very neutral.

The naim nait is a nice amp, but it's low powered, really for small rooms and/or efficient speakers. You'd need naim separates for your requirements.

I have never heard the creek5350, but creek amps are supposed to have a rather "polite" sound so I can understand why the bass may be insufficient for you.

Just thought I'd toss the cyrus and audiolabs in for your consideration because IMHO both are gems, and very underrated in the US.
The 8000s is a fine amp, but I don't think it has more power than the Creek5350. HOWEVER it's a steal at $650 and can later be biamped with an Audiolab 8000P found used here or on Ebay. An 8000s/8000P combination would probably (I have never heard this combination) be extremely powerful, able to drive almost anything. The closeout is at Artech ?