mikebse2a3 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Mike: I do appreciate your going to the trouble to take those pictures of the Creek. It's more complex than I thought, and for a minute thought the body of the VC was connected to small round transformer. Is it part of the motor for a remote volume control, or something? Also, I wonder if this little preamp, while passive, still incorporates a small amount of EQ circuitry, which would help offset potential HF losses related to lower volume control rotations. If this were the case, it would be similar to what guitar amp techs sometimes did/do on older muscial instrument amps. This is as simple as a small bypass capacitor between the input of the VC and wiper, and acts as a high-pass filter when the volume is turned down. It's supposed to compensate for HF losses at lower volume. The cap is a small silver mica, in the range of something like 47-100 pfd. I tried it, and it really works. It looks like a well done control! Erik Interesting about the capacitor bypass! Erik from what I can tell the Volume Control Assembly consist of a motor mounted to a gear/clutch assembly then to the volume controls themselves. All the circuirty is basically for the infrared remote operation and mute circuitry. If I remember correctly the remote circuitry goes into a sleep mode till it receives a signal from the Hand Unit to prevent any interferance from the remote circuits with the Audio Signal passing through the unit. I don't believe there is any processing of the signal at all. Also the DC is provided by a wall wart supply to minimize any chance of120V 60Hz AC interferance. Definitly not the highest quality or most expensive Volume Control used in this unit BUT I have put it in place of some $1000 to $2000 dollar pre-amps in my and some friends systems and it always held its own or actually sounded better!! mike[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Gosh, Mike -- lots of parts for the remote! I remember the day when as a very dogmatic two-channel listener I 'swore' I would NEVER own a remote control of any kind, and now I sit down to listen to music with at least two! What a lazy bum I've become! The EQ circuity might be passive, in that some of the parts on the board may not be connected to any active power supply related circuitry at all. I have a couple of schematics around here somewhere that show something like that. My brother uses the same model Creek as some sort of buffer between components -- can't remember exactly what he said he's doing with it. He likes it very much! Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebse2a3 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Gosh, Mike -- lots of parts for the remote! I remember the day when as a very dogmatic two-channel listener I 'swore' I would NEVER own a remote control of any kind, and now I sit down to listen to music with at least two! What a lazy bum I've become! Erik Funny you mention it but I'm like you! One remote for the CD Player and One for the Cary SLP98L and the Creek Remote for my center channel. I wouldn't do without them!!! The reason I actually feel the remote is necessary(not just a luxury) is I find so many tracks on a recording seem to have a level of their own that just sounds correct!!! mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieHeartKlipsch Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Thank you Marvel. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo33 Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 I'll be damned if Julie Heart Klipsch doesn't know anything about preamp! []. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted October 11, 2005 Share Posted October 11, 2005 Marvel: Wow, what an excellent explanation your provided! Thanks for sharing that. Erik You mean I was right? [H] It took me forever to even understand that much. There is a LOT more to it, and you usually explain it quite well. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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