CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — Creek Audio 4040 CD

The 4040 CD is a compact disc player and transport from Creek Audio, designed and engineered in London, England. Creek built its first CD player, the CD60, in 1990, and the 4040 CD now sits alongside the Voyage CD among the company's disc players. It shares its extruded aluminium front panel and styling with the 4040 A integrated amplifier, and the European price is EUR 950, with Australian pricing at AUD 1,429. Buyers choose a silver or black front panel, while the outer cover is black in both cases.

Key specs that matter

The player reads standard 12 cm discs at 16-bit and 44.1 kHz through a slot-loading mechanism, so there is no tray. Its analogue line output delivers 2.0 V RMS from RCA sockets with an output impedance below 100 ohm, and frequency response runs from 1 Hz to 30 kHz within 3 dB. Three digital outputs are fitted - transformer-isolated coaxial S/PDIF on RCA at up to 0.6 V RMS, balanced AES-EBU on XLR at up to 5.0 V RMS and optical TOSLINK. The case measures 21.5 x 6 x 22 cm and the net weight is 1.8 kg, under 3 kg packed.

Engineering and use context

Creek credits much of the small size to the external DC power supply, a multi-region adapter that provides 12 V from mains between 100 V and 250 V at 50 or 60 Hz and is rated at 2 A, or 24 W at most. In use the player draws 20 W. Signal sensing lets the 4040 CD power down circuitry that is not needed, and an auto-standby timer can be set to 30, 60 or 120 minutes or switched off, after which consumption falls below 0.5 W. A 48 mm TFT display sits on the front, and the menu adjusts display brightness in seven levels, sets the standby timer and reports the software version. Control is from the front-panel buttons or the RC-40 remote, which has CD and AMP modes so one handset also runs the matching amplifier. Creek positions the player for both domestic hi-fi systems and desktop audio setups, and refers to the unit both as a CD transport and as a complete CD player.

Pairing

Creek suggests connecting the 4040 CD to the 4040 A by coaxial or optical digital cable so that the amplifier's ES9018K2M ESS Sabre32 Reference DAC handles the conversion. Through the AES-EBU socket the 4040 CD can also feed a separate digital converter that has a balanced XLR input, while the built-in DAC and RCA output allow direct use with any amplifier line input.

Alternatives

The Creek Voyage CD is the other CD player in the current Creek range, with its own DAC section.