HELP! I have a discontinued Creek Evolution 2 Integrated Amplifier...

M

Matt Hall

Audiophyte
I would love to have the matching Integrated CD player but they are no longer in production and hard to find otherwise.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a solid component CD player I could buy that would work with the amplifier? It would be nice if it had digital/bluetooth capabilities as well.

Here are the specs for my Amp...

http://www.creekaudio.com/old-products/evolution-2-amp/
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
What you have a very simple (possibly high quality, I don't doubt it - just don't know) an analog integrated amp.
Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't even has DAC.
What you need is optical transport with dac and other goodies you want. The problem is CD players are no longer made and same goes for dvd players. As for BD and 4k BD players - they could play CD easy, but the problem is most of them no longer have analog out, and if some of them do, their designers for most part don't care about quality of the analog audio stage.

I highly recommend this one:
https://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-udp-203/blu-ray-udp-203-Features.aspx
It support pretty much any audio file you could ever find, including DSD (ie: SACD format)
Only thing from your list is missing is BT, but then BT is lossy and you'd rather use Wifi audio streaming instead anyhow.

If budget is tight, you may want to hunt for older oppo models. Pretty much anything which says DVD player and has analog out will do basically what you want. Newer models of course will have more features
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
UDP-205 is now available for preorder. I may consider it later this year and start looking for a buyer for my 105.
 
M

Matt Hall

Audiophyte
Thank you. My setup is very simple and high quality (at least I think so). I only listen to vinyl at home and everything runs through the Creek Amplifier (turntable, two tower speakers and a sub).

The girlfriend though, she doesn't always want to listen to my extensive vinyl collection (shame on her!). So, I was hoping to find something I could connect to the Amp and play through through the speakers so that she could listen to her spotify, pandora and such. Also, I have a million CDs collecting dust with nothing to really play them on.

Just to clarify, would the component you attached (or something of the like) accomplish what I'm trying to achieve?

Thanks again for the help.
 
M

Matt Hall

Audiophyte
Also, not to be too picky... I was hoping for another silver component (not black).
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Since pretty much everyone uses phones for audio playback, it wouldn't be bad to have a Bluetooth device, or if you have Apple, and Airplay device for audio playback. You may consider something like Sonos for audio integration. Their Connect unit is $350 and will allow for a myriad of audio playback options without the need for a video interface (TV) to make it work. Just a phone (android or iOs).

For a CD player, really some of the best quality right now is likely to come from Oppo since they heavily focus on the quality of their guts, DAC, and processing. Yes, it's black, but that's the 'best'.

Short of that, you have some options, in silver, from not only Creek, but Rotel, and Teac which should be of very high quality and provide analog audio connections which you would need.

Since CD doesn't really demand the top tier of quality the way analog does, you may be happy with something like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TEAC-Reference-PD-301-CD-Player-transport-w-FM-Tuner-remote-USB-450-List-PD301-/122264150968?hash=item1c7782e3b8:g:HNMAAOSwOtdYTCu6
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Silver might be difficult to come by. Some manufacturers here and there still do it, but not too many CD players. It would appear you have the option of silver from on a number of the Cambridge Audio source units still though:

https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/cx/cxc

They offer a lower model than that but it does not seem to come in silver.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I would love to have the matching Integrated CD player but they are no longer in production and hard to find otherwise.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a solid component CD player I could buy that would work with the amplifier? It would be nice if it had digital/bluetooth capabilities as well.

Here are the specs for my Amp...

http://www.creekaudio.com/old-products/evolution-2-amp/
You have the absolute Rolls Royce of integrated amps. Yes, you need a good CD player with good analog outs. There are plenty available in the high end.

This Quad Elite should fit the bill.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
Might be a good time to look into something like the Bluesound Vault 2. It'll rip and store your CD's rather than plat them directly though it'll only store about 3,500 to 4,000 of them, not a MILLION. It will also stream Spotify, Spotify Premium, Tidal Hi-Fi, iHeart and TuneIn internet radio and others, though not Pandora. White or black, no silver.

At a much higher price and quality would be the combo of NAD M50.2 digital music player and M51 DAC. In silver.

https://nadelectronics.com/product/m51-direct-digital-dac/
https://nadelectronics.com/product/m50-2-digital-music-player/

The M50.2 is like the Bluesound Vault 2 in function but without DAC for analog output. That's where the M51 DAC comes into play. Arguably one of the very highest resolution DAC's ever made, it's a 35-bit 844khz machine.

If all your CD's were ripped and stored for instant access play, perhaps your better half would listen to some of them at times.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Oppo also comes in silver. Nothing wrong with quad cd player, but with oppo you'll have same or better performance as well as much more features.
https://www.amazon.com/OPPO-BDP-105D-Universal-Audiophile-Blu-ray/dp/B00HUGP9EY
I strongly suspect that this guy is like the archetypal Quad customer in the hey day. No pop or rock ever came from their speakers or was ever loaded on their turntables. I highly doubt this OP would ever stoop so low as to stream from Pandora or Spotify.

Creek customers are very much in the traditional Quad mode.

He wants a British high end product to go with his Creek unless I'm mistaken. He almost certainly will never use anything but the analog outs.

I myself, as was my father, am very much in that Leak/Quad mode. It is just that I have broadened my horizons as to how to get program. I never use Pandora, Spotify and iTunes and never would. That's right, not ever.

My subscriptions are to the BPO, Medici TV, DSO and the Metropolitan Opera. I also stream the BBC.

This OP I think wants LP and good FM radio. He now wants to play CDs and connect it to his Creek integrated amp. He is looking for a CD player with a good analog output with a similar ethos to Quad, Creek and other similar suspects.

You are all barking up the wrong tree, and do not understand the British music lover. The OP may not be British, but they have American cousins with a similar outlook. They just do not frequent these forums.
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
Couldn't the OP just use the cd player on his pc. That's what I was using on my older integrated amps and it worked fine. I know there's likely some taboo associated with such a suggestion, using a basic Y cord, but the DAC on two different desktops, one which is a 10 year old Dell worked fine.

Pardon me if this is all wrong, but I have not gotten to modern playback sources yet.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Couldn't the OP just use the cd player on his pc. That's what I was using on my older integrated amps and it worked fine. I know there's likely some taboo associated with such a suggestion, using a basic Y cord, but the DAC on two different desktops, one which is a 10 year old Dell worked fine.

Pardon me if this is all wrong, but I have not gotten to modern playback sources yet.
He could but he would not. In any event using the internal sound card of a computer does not give the best fidelity.

The OP was looking for something with the ethos of his Creek amp. I suspect his turntable and speakers are high end. This is a guy who has an analog system whose major source is LP and a CD player is as far as he wants to dip his toe in the digital world.
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
He could but he would not. In any event using the internal sound card of a computer does not give the best fidelity.

The OP was looking for something with the ethos of his Creek amp. I suspect his turntable and speakers are high end. This is a guy who has an analog system whose major source is LP and a CD player is as far as he wants to dip his toe in the digital world.
Yes but, he also said this was for his gfriend who cares not for his music so I imagine she cares not the pedigree of his amp. For a few bucks, one could just try it and have all of the streaming sources and cd's saved to a decent quality format at their fingertips in the mean time and not worry about whether it is silver or black colored. What about a pc and an external DAC?

Also, with analog equipment, how does one calibrate and adjust for room modes etc? Are they really getting the perfect sonic quality from these high end devices other than point-blank like? You have me curious, now.

I think I spent in the neighborhood of $8 for a 25ft Y cord and I can sit here and play music while chatting with you folks.

I have started to look at other playback hardware but this has been good enough to make me procrastinate that venture for the time being.

I still take your word for it regardless. Just an option that wasn't mentioned, is all.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Op hasn't replied in 5 days. I wonder if he'll be back. I'm interested to see what he ends up with.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
I noticed that too. It bothers me when people try to help out and it goes either ignored or unacknowledged.

While he did note it was to get his GF interested in his large CD collection, it also seemed he wanted something to match his Creek amp.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Yes but, he also said this was for his gfriend who cares not for his music so I imagine she cares not the pedigree of his amp. For a few bucks, one could just try it and have all of the streaming sources and cd's saved to a decent quality format at their fingertips in the mean time and not worry about whether it is silver or black colored. What about a pc and an external DAC?

Also, with analog equipment, how does one calibrate and adjust for room modes etc? Are they really getting the perfect sonic quality from these high end devices other than point-blank like? You have me curious, now.

I think I spent in the neighborhood of $8 for a 25ft Y cord and I can sit here and play music while chatting with you folks.

I have started to look at other playback hardware but this has been good enough to make me procrastinate that venture for the time being.

I still take your word for it regardless. Just an option that wasn't mentioned, is all.
I think the issue here is philosophical rather then technical.

Many UK audio enthusiasts are very different from their US counterparts. Although you certainly find the related species of the British Audio devotee all over the world.

They want a simplicity.

They want very high quality.

Above all they want very high reliability and are highly trouble/failure adverse.

They expect to keep their equipment very long term and often over a life time.

They are primarily music lovers and not highly technical and certainly would have nothing to do with room correction.

As far as the latter is concerned, I think room correction using a distant microphone is a quality spoiler. Billy Woodman of ATC certainly advises strongly against it and so do I.
 
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