What A Busy Weekend with Creek Sugden & Grado

[Rameish 0]

Please do not PM or Email firefox because of what I'm about to say. Firefox has very limited time is is just keeping some of the promises he made from the second meet at Pipee's place. Yes it was that long ago.

 

Well, this weekend started off with Ting finally bringing over his Creek OBH-11SE to fix a hum problem (that we noticed at the 2nd meet) and "while we're at it" change some caps to Elna Cerafines (nice caps these). Ting's Creek was somewhat different from the one I had owned sometime back, unfortunately the V4 version had cheaper parts but less space to do mods because of the heat sinks.

 

Firefox did what he could and grounded the Creek and changed some caps - all in all it was a slight inprovement over the stock unit. Frankly, if it weren't for the humming issue it wouldn't have been worth the effort and money IMO. Still, it's a better than stock Creek. The blacks are a little blacker and there's a little more weight in the presentation.

 

The star of the weekend was the Lengcm's Sugden. First the power supply cap was upgraded - thankfully the Sugden had enough space for the new cap to be laid to the side. Since Lengcm was most familier with the sound. He did the auditioning and found a small but noticable improvement in the bass. Next we took the Sugden back to the kitchen table and added a Solen fast cap in the PS side - again a noticeable improvement (according to the owner of the Sugen - Lengcm). Finally after several more cap changes in the signal side, I sat and listened.

 

While the stock Sudgen traded punches with the Corda HA-2 (my reference amp). The modded Sugden was a clear winner by about 10%. The bottem end was more well defined, the bass slam improved and the amp was somewhat "faster".

 

 

Stage 3 would be to complete a cap change with either some Black Gates or Elna Cerafines or Stargets. We're letting Lengcm enjoy his modded Sudgen first to let the caps burn in as well. And if Lengcm want's too :-) stage 3 will be implemented.

 

Okay that was all done till 3 in the morning (Sunday morning!). Tee came by at 4 pm to pick up his premium Grado RA-1 clone. Unfortunately me and firefox were having lunch. Tee's Grado was busily built over a 2 - 3 week period LOL. Hell it's got an Alp Beauty, Neutrik Locking Headphone Jack, Cardas top-of-the-line Rodium plated RCAs, with Neutrik XLR power input (which can be later hooked up to a seperate PSU. Resistors were 1% and caps were the Solens of course. The Op-Amp was atop a gold-plated IC-Socket (not the type you find in SLS).

 

Well it still sounded like the Grado RA-1 amp (from memory) but it'll probably last a lifetime. BTW the knob was an all aluminum affair with a nice grub screw and BLUE LED (a Guyferd special LOL).

 

Towards late Sunday night, firefox and I were discussing cable geometry and I said hey make it and if it sounds good I'll tell ya guys. Till then my ref. interconnect will still be the Kimber KD-1030.

 

OT Fishball, any idea who has your cables? I didn't get a change to listen to them at the 3rd SG Headphones Meet.

 

Once again, please don't innundate firefox with PM's on this. He's in the army and doesn't have much time.

 

Ask any questions you have here and either me, Lengcm, Tee or Firefox will try and answer your questions.

[N@Z 0]

Wot no photos?!

[Rameish 0]

No digital camera. Maybe Lengcm will post some of the mods to his Sugden.

[Firefox 0]

Well.. N@Z, you should have given me the FP6800 at the meet. Now you know what to have Mat bring over later this month, aye?

 

[N@Z 0]

Give? Hehehe. He has his own dinky lil' fine pix as well.

[ting 0]

Yes, it was my 11se, I've been enjoying it for whole day.

Most noticeble change is the bass, it is deeper than before, the sound stage and detail also improved a bit, but form jack one, the bass could be tighter, I think the new cap need some burning in to get along with other old residents.

Last night, I did a brief listening with K501, quite a good match, the bigger and deeper bass made the 501 more enjoyable.

Thank you guys!

[Firefox 0]

Most noticeble change is the bass, it is deeper than before, the sound stage and detail also improved a bit, but form jack one, the bass could be tighter, I think the new cap need some burning in to get along with other old residents.

It could be because of the different impedance output of jack 1 that the bass isn't as tight. There're other mods that can be done on the Creek including input cap rolling but IMO, it's not worth the labour anymore.

[Northern Oak 0]

I think we need to think of a conspiracy theory to get Firefox out of the Army so he can devote his time being a professional modder and handiman!

 

Good work! Heard from lengcm that's he pretty happy with your handiwork! Well done!

[iconic 0]

how much did the ra-1 end up costing? are the parts avaliable locally? i wanna build one too, but i'll let fishball do the soldering

[Mackie 0]

 

OT Fishball, any idea who has your cables? I didn't get a change to listen to them at the 3rd SG Headphones Meet.

 

If U're referring to the Y-cable, it's with me. I'm ready to pass it on to whoever wanna audition it.

[matbon0013 0]

 

OT Fishball, any idea who has your cables? I didn't get a change to listen to them at the 3rd SG Headphones Meet.

 

If U're referring to the Y-cable, it's with me. I'm ready to pass it on to whoever wanna audition it.

Looks like you guys had a day of fun again, oddly enough I didn't get a chance to sample the sound of the sudgen amp during the meet.

 

Sorry for this side track :

Mackie, how did you find Fishball's mini to mini? any impressions??

 

Rameish, is it possible to drop by your place when I'm in town next?

[lengcm 0]

 

OT Fishball, any idea who has your cables? I didn't get a change to listen to them at the 3rd SG Headphones Meet.

 

If U're referring to the Y-cable, it's with me. I'm ready to pass it on to whoever wanna audition it.

Looks like you guys had a day of fun again, oddly enough I didn't get a chance to sample the sound of the sudgen amp during the meet.

 

Sorry for this side track :

Mackie, how did you find Fishball's mini to mini? any impressions??

 

Rameish, is it possible to drop by your place when I'm in town next?

Hey Mat, PM me as well....

[Rameish 0]

OT Mat yes of course. I just asked N@Z abt your visit.

 

Lengcm,

 

How's the Sugden buring in?

[lengcm 0]

OT Mat yes of course. I just asked N@Z abt your visit.

 

Lengcm,

 

How's the Sugden buring in?

Did not really have time to really sit down and have a listen. Will do it in a couple of days time.

[Rameish 0]

Hmm...maybe bring it over - once it's burnt in :-) - and we can do a take 2. Before we add even more caps Muhahahahah!.

 

The arms race has begun LOL