One of the least expected debuts at the Munich High End Show was a new turntable from British manufacturer Creek. And even more unusual is that Mike Creek, founder of the 25-year-old company, hasn't taken the easy route and bought in a turntable: instead the new model is a ground-up design.
Creek might have been forgiven for some badge-engineering: its US distributor Music Hall has been doing well with its ‘own-label’ turntables, sourced from Czech turntable experts Pro-ject. But the new Creek turntable is of a skeletal design, mounted on the same hefty adjustable feet as the company’s equipment rack, and also using thin Sorbothane rings to provide some isolation.
Further decoupling is provided by the bearing, which uses opposed magnets rather than the more conventional metal/metal lubricated designs, allowing the thick acrylic platter to bounce independently of the main structure.
A simple mounting system allows compatibility with a wide range of arms, and the height – and therefore the vertical tracking angle – can be adjusted at the turn of a ring, while the whole arm mount can also be adjusted backwards and forwards. The turntable is driven by an offboard AC motor, and in its standard form just plays LPs: the addition of an external ‘speed box’ will not only provide even more accurate rotational speed, but also fine adjustment and a 45rpm option.
Creek is also working on a fully-balanced moving magnet/moving coil phono stage, and anticipates this could be fitted to the turntable to allow it to operate directly into the balanced input of an amplifier, thus keeping the extremely low-level signal from the cartridge to as short a path as possible
The Creek turntable is expected to cost around £1500, depending on configuration.
