Creek Wyndsor Phono preamp

Since it's foundation in 1982 Creek Audio has always kept faith with us vinyl aficionados. Even in the dark days of the late '80s and through the '90s when others talked openly of the format's demise Creek have always offered both moving coil and moving magnet phonostages with their amplifiers and have produced, in more recent years, the OBH series of free-standing phonostages. However, it has taken until this year for the Company to introduce what they describe as a "no compromise stand-alone product", the Wyndsor under review here.

It comes in two boxes, available in either silver or black, the smaller of the two (measuring 112 x 62 x 195mm) being the power supply. Inside are two toroidal mains transformers which provide independent power to the analogue signal and the logic switching and display circuits. Power connects via a supplied cable to the phonostage which is housed in a 192 x 62 x 195mm box. The connecting cable is long enough to site the power supply on a separate shelf should you require. I had them placed about five inches apart on the same shelf and noticed no hum or interference problems.

The front of the phonostage has a couple of buttons and a knob that can be both turned and pressed. By using this and the appropriate buttons it is possible to access five different levels of gain and input resistance, and four stages of capacitance. The unit can accommodate several different pre-sets, which can also be labelled with up to sixteen characters each. All of this is read on the vacuum fluorescent display whose brightness can be varied to four levels or switched off entirely.

The back has a power switch above the DC input socket and the usual gold plated phono sockets for input and output. Alongside the former are a pair of miniature DIN sockets which allows for the connection of pickup arms in a balanced configuration. Suitable plugs are provided (both types of connection cannot be used at the same time).

The internal components are housed on separate multi-layer circuit boards that connect directly to the input and output sockets. The RIAA stage is divided into three parts with a passive 75µS de-emphasis filter in the front. The 318µS and 3180µS equalisation is performed by a high grade op-amp and there is a passive IEC low frequency roll off to follow. Another op-amp gain stage drives the output with a 50 Ohm impedance allowing for the use of long interconnects.

I set up the Wyndsor in my upstairs system where it took over from the similarly priced Luxman E200 phonostage, and was fed by the Sondek. After about twenty hours of playing I felt that the sound was stable so started listening in greater depth.

I started off with Elgar's 'Enigma Variations' as performed by the Philharmonia under the baton of Barbirolli. I found that I could not help but be impressed by the seemingly effortless way that the music flowed to the extent that I had got as far as the ninth variation, commonly known as 'Nimrod' and realised that I had not taken a single written note. There was something inherently right about the sound. The differing shades of instrumental timbre were well displayed, with strings in particular having just the right degree of rasp of bow on gut to be believable. The final crescendo before the music relaxes and quietens was handled very well, lifting me along with it, almost like being picked up by a strong tide and left deposited on a beach.

The following day I was in a more uptempo mood and ended up playing some quite hard driving R and B courtesy of Manfred Mann. If you have only heard their chart material such as 'Doo Wah Diddy Diddy' then the LP 'The Five Faces Of Manfred Mann' would prove a revelation. Away from the charts the band played covers of Howlin' Wolf's 'Smokestack Lightening' and Muddy Water's 'Got My Mojo Working' propelled along by Tom McGuinness's bass guitar and Mike Hugg's drums, with vocals and harmonica fills provided by Paul Jones. It is raw and vibrant and the Wyndsor transmitted this as effortlessly as it had glided through the smoothness of Elgar. The sound was punchy and very direct, capturing the energy and enthusiasm of the band for the music.

The record is in near mint condition, so although there was no stereo/ mono switch fitted to the phonostage, surface noise was not a problem. I later tried some rather more well played mono records and found the Wyndsor to be very well behaved in this respect. Most noises disappeared so quickly that they were not worthy of comment, although a couple of records played with a gentle background sizzle of frying bacon - but I was trying to provoke a reaction at the time.

I returned to stereo for the last record, the Orb's 12 inch EP 'Perpetual Dawn'. This early excursion into electronica was taken from the LP 'Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld' and features a reggae influenced rhythm, vocals by Jeffrey Nelson and Shola, as well as a range of both sampled and real instruments. The soundstage was both wide and deep, allowing sounds to be placed in their own bit of space with me being able to appreciate the air inbetween them. The vocals, for instance, were very firmly placed in the centre and to the mid right. Sampled effects appeared at various points of the space in front of me, all combining with the rolling rhythm to make for a very engaging listen.

I was very impressed with the Creek Wyndsor, feeling it has lived up to the company's intention of providing a no compromise, high end phonostage. It is one of the most flexible that I have met at this price point and offers a very clean and fast sound that also manages to engage the emotions quite effortlessly.

Compared with the Luxman E200 it provided a more forward and brighter lit sound that worked well with the Clearaudio Concept, but was a little too forward with a bright sounding cartridge from the likes of Audio Technica or Lyra. I would suggest the less explicit sounding Ortofons and Benz Micros as being very good partners to the Wyndsor.

I liked the build quality and thoroughly enjoyed the sound and can only recommend that you place it high on the auditions list. I feel it justifies every penny of the £1500 price tag.