"The Creek Destiny is a must
audition for those searching for an integrated amp in the increasingly
crowded and increasingly competitive $2000 and up market. Its ability
to drive real world speaker loads, extract premium performance from the
CD format, the versatility of its preamp modes, and its exceptional
musically communicative performance make it an easy and obvious
recommendation." – Paul Szabady, Stereo Times, Nov. 2006
"…this
amp is particularly clear at all times: but the way it can grab ahold
of a pair of speakers and control them with real confidence does indeed
seem to improve the rhythmic performance of the whole audio chain. The
end result is that anything with a danceable beat really does get the
feet moving involuntarily." – Richard Block
"We were particularly impressed with the Destiny amplifier. It has an effortless and seamless coverage of the audio band." – Hi-Fi Choice
"What
a great little amplifier. The Destiny packs a powerful punch, with
strength, bass depth and rhythm, yet also finesse and musical analysis.
Chameleon-like, it simply delivers music in an enjoyable but
deceptively un-fussed way. It seems to have no hidden vices and
astutely avoids the ragged grainy sound of some transistor amplifiers.
There is nothing to criticise at its price point. It will almost
certainly out-perform amplifiers at higher prices and it looks good
too." – David Berriman, Hi-Fi News, June 2006
The Destiny integrated amplifier will continue to produce world beating audio performance, through its continued use of discrete analogue MOS-FET circuitry which was first developed for Creek’s amplification products in 1993. This circuitry has continued to be used with great success since that time.
A major improvement in the Destiny over earlier Creek amplifiers has been in the area of separating power supply and voltage referencing circuitry for each channel. Dedicated windings on the new and up-rated mains transformer achieves >100 Watts into 8 Ohm operation.
In addition Creek has upgraded the circuitry that controls the protection of the amplifier and ancillary products under fault conditions. Protection of the amplifier and ancillary products under fault conditions is facilitated by an array of sensors and measurement circuits feeding-back information to the microcontroller that monitors the amplifier constantly for over-temperature, over-current, DC offsets, power supply status and over-drive situations. If any of these conditions is exceeded the microcontroller will take the appropriate corrective action. This can include, muting the input signal, separating the speaker outputs and, in extreme cases, switching off the mains supply to the power amplifier circuitry.
It continues, as before, to control the volume by adjusting a motorized 27mm ALPS potentiometer. The Destiny has 5 inputs plus a single tape loop selected by relays and indicated by LED’s.
Separating the pre-amp / power amplifier in the Destiny is controlled by a semi-hidden push switch on the rear panel and signal paths to and from the pre and power amplifier are carried by custom audio grade wiring. Loudspeaker connection is controlled locally by gold contact high current relays that can also be controlled via the Creek (CAN) bus.
The Destiny can still be run with a passive pre-amp but now has the added feature of a gain selectable active pre-amp. Selection is in three steps - 3dB, 6dB & 9dB. The gain is adjustable from underneath the pre-amp selection with a 3 way slider switch. To select active or passive operation a push button on the front panel switches between the two and is indicated with an LED.
A new connector arrangement can be found inside the Destiny pre-amp circuit board allowing the use of a plug-in gain Phono circuit board. Being fully isolated from the input ground, it is possible to input either MM or MC cartridges. The early range of phono boards which suit Creek’s Classic 5350SE and earlier model Creek amplifiers will not fit this new amplifier.
Most types of dynamic headphones can be connected to the standard size ¼" jack socket on the front panel, for high performance reproduction.
One of the more difficult tasks was to make the Destiny switch into low-current standby operation. Waking up the amplifier can now be performed simply via the Creek System Remote handset.
The metal case of the Destiny amplifier is larger and more substantial in thickness and weight. The new casework design uses heavy extruded aluminium sections and turned control knobs and buttons, machined by computer aided manufacturing techniques, to achieve a very high quality finish. The front panel itself is machined from solid 10mm thick aluminium. Groups of function buttons are now clustered together within a machined circle to make it more intuitive to use. LED’s indicate the functionality. Sorbothane'TM moulded feet, are also used to isolate mechanical vibration and improve sonic resolution.
