The 5350SE replaced my 4330SE. There was nothing wrong with the 4330SE. The 5350SE came available and I decided to go for it (Creek gear doesn’t come up for sale very often).
When I initially compared the two using my cd player (Naim CD3.5), speakers (Vandersteen 2C) and cables (DH Labs silver coated Q-10 and Air Matrix). The biggest thing I noticed was that the mids were fuller and more resolved. Bass on the two were fairly close, but the 53’s bass was more detailed and tighter (more on this later). Highs for the most part were the same to me.
This was the extent of my comparison and decided to go ahead and sell the 4330SE. I kept listening to the 4330 as I wanted to check the TT since I hadn’t used it much. I was playing Pink Floyd’s Wish Yo Were Here and after listening over several days, it really began to sound awesome to me. The sound was warm, smooth and so analog sounding. When the 4330 sold, I kinda was starting to regret it and thought perhaps I should keep it. But, I figured the 53 would be even better and went ahead and packed it up and shipped it.
I then fully connected the 53 and spun the same Floyd record. It did not sound the same as it did on the 43. It did have a fuller sound as mentioned in the initial comparison, but I had lost the warmth. That’s the biggest thing here is that I lost the analog warmth. It seems colder, more analytical now.
Now for my testing:
JUMPERS:
I have since received the Kimber PBJ jumpers and had been comparing all weekend. They can be bought on Cannuck Audio Mart. Just search for "PBJ jumpers" and the ad will show it. They’re $20/pair shipped. In a nutshell, the PBJ jumpers helped A LOT in the sound quality of the 53. I’m seriously beginning to feel now that the Achilles heel in any integrated amp with preout/main-in jacks are the stock U-shaped crap metal jumpers. And, the more I think about it, I seems as though manufacturers use these stock jumpers to complete the product as a usable unit from the factory. I seriously think now the intention is to replace them with whatever interconnects you would normally use in a [physically] separate amp and preamp. It really isn’t any different, is it? In all honesty, I’m not a big fan of the "preout/main-in" layout for this very reason. My purpose for getting an integrated vs separates to have preamp and amp connected together IN one box... or INTEGRATED. Btw, for those integrated amps that DO NOT have jumpers to deal with, how are they connected on the inside? And, what is used to connect them? Copper wire? Silver wire? PC board via solder connection?
COPPER NOW OVER SILVER:
Now that I’ve been listening to the 53 for a while now, I’m wondering if I need to go back to copper cables & interconnects? The PBJ jumpers made a improvement, but I was still missing the warmth. My previous cables were Mogami through 10 Audio.com. They are wonder sounding cables... smooth and very neutral. But, on the 4330, along with the Vandys and Naim, it was too soft, which made it sound too veiled and dark. This is when I added the DH Labs Q-10 speaker and Air Matrix interconnects, it brought everything to life. Now that the 53 seems to bring everything to "life by itself, do I go back to the Mogami’s (or copper) to balance everything out?
CABLES/INTERCONNECTS:
The first thing I swapped out was the air matrix interconnect (DIN to RCA) and installed the Chord Company Cobra (original) that came from the with the Naim from the original owner when I bought it. Wow, there was a difference. The sound got more relaxed and slightly punchier in the bass. But, I did notice now the mids were less resolved vs the Air Matrix. As for speaker cables, I couldn’t swap out my Q-10’s because a friend of mine is testing the Mogami speaker cables on his system. I then decided to test the Mogami interconnects where I could... on the preout/main-in’s. OMG, there was the warmth! It sounded like the 4330 only this time with the clear, full mids. I still have more listening to do, and, I still have to swap out the Q-10’s for the Mogami speaker cables. But, in the end, there may be several different brands used. For all cables, I generally like to stick to one brand for everything, but that may not be the case here. I still have a lot of testing and listening to do, but I hope this info helps someone out.
When I initially compared the two using my cd player (Naim CD3.5), speakers (Vandersteen 2C) and cables (DH Labs silver coated Q-10 and Air Matrix). The biggest thing I noticed was that the mids were fuller and more resolved. Bass on the two were fairly close, but the 53’s bass was more detailed and tighter (more on this later). Highs for the most part were the same to me.
This was the extent of my comparison and decided to go ahead and sell the 4330SE. I kept listening to the 4330 as I wanted to check the TT since I hadn’t used it much. I was playing Pink Floyd’s Wish Yo Were Here and after listening over several days, it really began to sound awesome to me. The sound was warm, smooth and so analog sounding. When the 4330 sold, I kinda was starting to regret it and thought perhaps I should keep it. But, I figured the 53 would be even better and went ahead and packed it up and shipped it.
I then fully connected the 53 and spun the same Floyd record. It did not sound the same as it did on the 43. It did have a fuller sound as mentioned in the initial comparison, but I had lost the warmth. That’s the biggest thing here is that I lost the analog warmth. It seems colder, more analytical now.
Now for my testing:
JUMPERS:
I have since received the Kimber PBJ jumpers and had been comparing all weekend. They can be bought on Cannuck Audio Mart. Just search for "PBJ jumpers" and the ad will show it. They’re $20/pair shipped. In a nutshell, the PBJ jumpers helped A LOT in the sound quality of the 53. I’m seriously beginning to feel now that the Achilles heel in any integrated amp with preout/main-in jacks are the stock U-shaped crap metal jumpers. And, the more I think about it, I seems as though manufacturers use these stock jumpers to complete the product as a usable unit from the factory. I seriously think now the intention is to replace them with whatever interconnects you would normally use in a [physically] separate amp and preamp. It really isn’t any different, is it? In all honesty, I’m not a big fan of the "preout/main-in" layout for this very reason. My purpose for getting an integrated vs separates to have preamp and amp connected together IN one box... or INTEGRATED. Btw, for those integrated amps that DO NOT have jumpers to deal with, how are they connected on the inside? And, what is used to connect them? Copper wire? Silver wire? PC board via solder connection?
COPPER NOW OVER SILVER:
Now that I’ve been listening to the 53 for a while now, I’m wondering if I need to go back to copper cables & interconnects? The PBJ jumpers made a improvement, but I was still missing the warmth. My previous cables were Mogami through 10 Audio.com. They are wonder sounding cables... smooth and very neutral. But, on the 4330, along with the Vandys and Naim, it was too soft, which made it sound too veiled and dark. This is when I added the DH Labs Q-10 speaker and Air Matrix interconnects, it brought everything to life. Now that the 53 seems to bring everything to "life by itself, do I go back to the Mogami’s (or copper) to balance everything out?
CABLES/INTERCONNECTS:
The first thing I swapped out was the air matrix interconnect (DIN to RCA) and installed the Chord Company Cobra (original) that came from the with the Naim from the original owner when I bought it. Wow, there was a difference. The sound got more relaxed and slightly punchier in the bass. But, I did notice now the mids were less resolved vs the Air Matrix. As for speaker cables, I couldn’t swap out my Q-10’s because a friend of mine is testing the Mogami speaker cables on his system. I then decided to test the Mogami interconnects where I could... on the preout/main-in’s. OMG, there was the warmth! It sounded like the 4330 only this time with the clear, full mids. I still have more listening to do, and, I still have to swap out the Q-10’s for the Mogami speaker cables. But, in the end, there may be several different brands used. For all cables, I generally like to stick to one brand for everything, but that may not be the case here. I still have a lot of testing and listening to do, but I hope this info helps someone out.