Creek – OBH-21mk2 – Headphone Amplifier Review

Creek – OBH-21mk2 – Headphone Amplifier Creek Audio has been making headphone amplifiers since 1993 and therefore understands what is needed to make them sound good. TheOBH-21 mk2is the latest in the long history, being small and very stylish. Designed to complement the Creek full sized range, it has an impressive solid aluminium front panel with either a silver or black finish. Its housed in a custom black metal case is fitted with turned metal disc feet and sound absorbing cushioned feet. The OBH-21mk2 is essentially a very high quality miniature integrated amplifier, designed specifically to drive two pairs of low impedance headphones simultaneously from a line level source, such as a CD player, DAC, or amplifier without headphone output. It can even drive demanding 8 Ohm headphone if called upon to do so. Unusually, it is also designed to act as a single input high quality pre-amplifier, if required. Its output level is controlled by an andlsquo;audiophile quality’ ALPS 27mm Blue Velvet volume control on the front panel and by user adjustable gain setting switches on the bottom of the case. TheOBH-21mk2has three pairs of stereo RCA sockets on the rear panel for Line level input, looped Line level output, and a variable pre-amp output, whose gain can be set, independently from the headphone gain for the greatest flexibility.