Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Creek OBH-8 Phono Preamp by Kun

The OBH-8 is a small, black, metal box with a pushbutton power switch and green LED on the faceplate. She sports a ground, 24v input and female RCA I/O on the back. Plain but reasonably good looking. Unfortunately, she also sports a wallwart power supply (more on that later).

The sound is clean, and features fine upper frequency detail and clarity (slightly bright for my taste), warm and sweet mids and a clear, true Bass (not bloated). The sound stage is reasonably wide and 3D--I felt like I could reach out and touch the musicians in an old Nonsuch Telemann trio sonata!

This preamp really does require a 24 hour break in period because it really sucked at first--bright, grainy with a flat sound stage. What a difference a few days made!

There is a HUGE, HUGE problem: RFI. I live in downtown Honolulu, a high-RFI area. There are a half dozen TV and FM transmitters towers within a couple miles of my home. In fact there is one less than two blocks away! I'll get to the point: the wallwart power supply of the OBH 8 is really an antenna in disguise. As I move the connecting cord around the hum, buzz and classic rock radio station (!) becomes louder or softer, but never goes away. At its worst, the hum is louder than the music. I have been able to reduce the RFI noise considerably by plugging into a Monster HTS2000 power conditioner, placing four radio shack RFI chokes on the OBH power cord, and moving the power cord into the least receptive position (connecting/disconnecting the ground didn't make much difference). However, now it is bearable if I sit 5 feet or from the speakers. Any closer and it is audible and distracting (forget using headphones!).

Audio Adviser, where I purchased this thing, did not advise me with any RF-freeing tips (they didn't bother answering my email). Roy Hall (the Creek USA dude) answered my email within hours but, unfortunately, his best suggestion was that I should move..... (how about a shielded power supply!)

If you live in the sticks or anyplace away from radio/TV transmitters is a great preamp for mid-fi systems. However, beware inner city dwellers.

REVIEW: Creek OBH-8 Phono Preamp Review by Kun at Audio Asylum