Creek 4330 and Meadowlark Kestrels: Together They Sing!
Written: Dec 20 '00
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Pros: delicate, emotionally involving presentation
Cons: a bit light-weight for rock 'n roll
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| Horswispr's Full Review: Creek 4330 Stereo Amplifier |
For a long time, I have wanted to review the Meadowlark Kestrel speaker, a little-known high quality speaker from a small manufacturer in Southern California. But I have not been able to find it on epinions.
Recently, I listened to a pair of Kestrels at The Audio Chamber in Oakland, and also got to listen to an amazing integrated amplifier, the Creek 4330. The Creek’s presence on epinions allows me to review the two performing together.
The Creek 4330 is a British integrated amplifier known for its “musicality,” a term audiophiles use to mean that a component emphasizes overall listenability over big bass, sparkling treble, and other forms of catchy sonic bombast.
The Creek 4330 retails for about $500. The Meadowlark Kestrels retail for about $1250/pair.
Before describing my impressions of this duo performing together, I’ll tell you a little about each component.
The Meadowlark Kestrel
The Meadowlark Kestrel is an attractive two-way speaker measuring about 36 inches high, and about a foot square. A sloped panel graces the top third of the enclosure, on which its two drivers are mounted. Inside the well-braced enclosure is a transmission line, said to improve bass response from a relatively small (less than 3 cubic feet) speaker.
The Kestrel features a 6” woofer and a soft dome tweeter, crossed over with a 6 dB/octave slope. On the back of the enclosure are five-way gold binding posts and a small port. The speaker comes in several wood finishes. The small grill cloth covers only the sloped top panel and comes in black.
Meadowlark is a small manufacturer out of Southern California that does little advertising, hoping that word-of-mouth will be sufficient for generating decent sales.
The Creek 4330
The Creek 4330 is an equally attractive, compact integrated amplifier from a respected English manufacturer. It is rated at 40 watts/channel at 8 ohms with under .05% distortion from 20 to 20khz. Like the previously reviewed NAD C320, the 4330 features a simple, low-profile look, with a black exterior.
The front panel of the Creek 4330 is even simpler than that of the NAD C320, featuring only two knobs, one for function (CD, tuner, etc.) and one for volume, and two switches, an on/off switch and tape monitor switch. As is, there is no phono input, but a phono “card” is available for an extra $60.
Front panel lettering is in green, and unusual touch that characterizes Creek components. The Creek 4330 possesses no tone controls.
The Listening
I brought several familiar CDs for my recent listening session, including Greg Brown’s “Covenant,” Keith Jarrett’s “Standards, Volume 2,” Enya’s “Watermark,” and Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers.” For comparison purposes, my reference system (at home) consists of a Rotel 855 CD player, B&K 202 power amp, B&K Pro 5 preamp in bypass mode, and 1982 DCM Time Window speakers.
The CD player used during my listening was also by Creek Audio.
On the Creek/Meadowlark system, Greg Brown’s voice was appropriately deep and gruff, but slightly less full than with my B&K/DCM Time Window system. Turning up the volume a bit added a little heft—a good thing. Imaging was much better with the Creek/Kestrel combination than with the B&K/Time Window combination. Greg Brown was dead center, and I could hear the room around him.
The guitars that accompany Greg Brown were beautifully rendered through the Kestrels. The delicacy of the live instruments really came through. Bass was tight and realistic through the Kestrels. With the Time Windows, bass tends to be full but a little but loose.
Keith Jarrett’s jazz music was beautifully rendered through the Creek/Kestrel combination. Jarrett’s piano was a tad brighter and had more transient attack than through my B&K/Time Window system, but the effect was not fatiguing. “Standards, Volume 2” features only bass, piano, and drums, and each instrument was rendered with incredible realism through the Creek/Kestrel combination. Cymbals cut through the music but were not overly bright, and the sound of drum sticks actually contacting the skin of the drums was much more readily apparent though the Creek/Kestrel combination.
Keith Jarrett tends to moan along with the music, and his characteristic moans were easy to hear though the Creek/Kestrel combination, but they were distinct from the piano and did not intrude on the music.
Enya’s “Watermark” is a good test of a speakers’s ability to reproduce female vocals. On a good system, her voice is hauntingly beautiful and sounds as if it’s coming from well behind the speakers. On lesser systems, her voice can sound thin and sibilants sound hissy. The Creek/Kestrel combination passed this test with flying colors. I found myself getting drawn into the music and feeling no temptation to move to the next track.
The deep bass notes on “Watermark” were rendered with precision, but they were a bit reserved compared to the same notes from my system, and compared to some other speakers in the Kestrel’s price range, including the Vandersteen 2Cis and Cambridge Tower IIs. However, I found the Kestrel’s presentation of female vocals more emotionally involving than the Vandersteen’s (and a draw, relative to the Cambridge speakers).
So the Creek/Kestrel combination is subtle and delicate, but can it ROCK? I listened to “Wildflowers” and “You Wreck Me” from Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” CD. On “Wildflowers.” Petty’s voice sounded a bit thin and small. When I listened to the same cut later on my B&K/Time Window system, there was more heft to Petty’s voice. On “You Wreck Me,” the Creek/Kestrel system sounded articulate but a bit light. “You Wreck Me” is a ballsy song, and I found myself wishing the system had more cahones.
Jaime, the sales person, sensed that the Creek might be running out of steam at rock levels, and brought out a B&K integrated amplifier with more than 100 watts/channel. When we inserted it into the system, rock music did sound more ballsy, and the bass was much louder and tighter, but some of the delicacy that had drawn me into the Creek/Kestrel combination was missing. When I went back to the Enya CD with the B&K, I found myself looking around the room at other speakers and such, rather than getting choked up at the beauty of Enya’s voice.
Conclusion
This is an easy conclusion to write. If you favor acoustic music over rock ‘n roll, and want a delicate, emotionally involving presentation of your music, the Creek/Kestrel combination warrants your serious consideration. At under $2000 for the speakers and the amplifier, I consider this combination a good buy.
However, if you favor rock and roll, or if you listen at unusually loud levels, I recommend you listen to the Vandersteen 2Ce, Cambridge Tower IIs, or PSM Stratus Bronze speakers in this price range, and maybe consider the NAD C320 or C340 integrated amplifier. I have not heard the NAD and Creek side by side, but my guess is that the NAD would play subjectively louder and be more suited for rock, while the Creek would draw you into acoustic music in a way the NAD could not quite match.
The Creek 4330 integrated amplifier and Meadowlark Audo Kestrel combination plays music in a fashion reminiscent of a good tube amplifier-based system. What it lacks in sonic bombast, it more than makes up for in emotional involvement . If you want to hear how emotionally involving reproduced music can be, I highly recommend both the Creek 4330 and the Meadowlark Kestrel.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 500
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