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"Editors' Choice" Award, The Absolute Sound, 2007 and 2008
Hi-fi Choice Magazine "Best Buy"
Creek's Best Integrated Amplifier Ever
"Rivals More Expensive Separates"
Creek Audio's Destiny integrated amplifier delivers world-class audio performance at a low-rent price. The Destiny features the latest evolution of discrete analog MOS-FET circuitry first developed by Creek in 1993.
"I won't mince words -- the Destiny units rival the performance of more expensive separates and do some things better than any other digital and solid-state combo that I have heard at anywhere near their price," reports Jim Hannon in his joint review of the Creek Destiny CD player and integrated amplifier for the March 2007 issue of The Absolute Sound magazine -- which honored the Destiny with its "Editors' Choice" Award for 2007 and 2008.
Hi-fi Choice Magazine "Best Buy"
"We were particularly impressed with the Destiny amplifier," reports the March 2006 issue of England's Hi-fi Choice magazine, which awarded the Destiny its coveted "Best Buy" status. "It has an effortless and seamless coverage of the audio band and seemingly well beyond, with bass of considerable heft that also manages the trick of sounding tuneful on potentially troublesome sounds like plucked double bass and timpani."
"Comments like rich, smooth, insightful, and rhythmic are all phrases that leap from my listening notes," reports David Berriman in the August 2006 issue of England's Hi Fi News magazine. "Whichever way the mustard is cut, the Destiny is one amazing amplifier for the money."
A major improvement in the Destiny over earlier Creek amplifiers is its superior separation of power supply and voltage referencing circuitry for each channel. This contributes to the Destiny's impressive channel separation, soundstage, and detail. Dedicated windings on the new and uprated mains transformer achieve more than 100 watts into 8 ohms and 200 watts into 4 ohms. Frequency response is a jaw-dropping 3 Hz to 80 Khz at 1 dB.
"On large-scale music, I also thought I was listening to a much more powerful amplifier," concludes Jim Hannon in The Absolute Sound. "The performance of the Creeks is so exemplary, that they merit comparisons with good analog front ends and tube separates rather than with other units in their class."
Advanced Protection Circuitry
Sophisticated protection circuitry keeps your Destiny running at its peak and ensures long term reliability. An array of sensors and measurement circuits provide 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.
Five Inputs Plus a Tape Loop
The Destiny has five inputs plus a single tape loop, and these are selected by relays and indicated by LEDs. Volume adjustment is made by adjusting a premium motorized 27mm ALPS potentiometer. Signal paths to and from the preamp and power amplifier are carried by custom audio grade wiring for maximum signal integrity. Loudspeaker connection is controlled locally by gold-contact high current relays that can also be controlled via the Creek (CAN) bus.
Flexible Configurations and Options
As with legacy Creek Audio integrateds, the Destiny can be run with a passive preamp but also has the added feature of a gain selectable active preamp. Selection is in three steps: 3 dB, 6 dB, and 9 dB. The gain is adjustable from underneath the preamp selection with a three-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.
The Destiny gives you an upgrade path by allowing you to separate the preamp and power amplifier sections for preamp output and power amp input. Simply push the semi-hidden switch on the rear panel. This lets you use the Destiny's preamp section to feed another amp.
Need phono capacity? A connector arrangement inside the Destiny preamp circuit board allowing the use of a plug-in gain phono circuit board which will be available as an option from Creek Audio. Being fully isolated from the input ground, it is possible to input either MM or MC cartridges.
Substantial Casework and Other Features
One of the more difficult tasks in designing the Destiny was to make it switch into low-current standby operation when it hasn't been fed a signal for an amount of time. This feature saves energy, of course, and also helps to diminish wear on your integrated between listening sessions. Waking up the amplifier is as easy as sending a command via the Creek System Remote handset.
Other features include a front panel headphone jack, which lets you plug in most types of dynamic headphones for high performance reproduction. An A/B speaker switch lets you use the Destiny in a multi-room configuration.
The metal case of the Destiny amplifier is substantial in thickness and weight. This new casework design uses heavy extruded aluminum 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 aluminum. Groups of function buttons are clustered together within a machined circle to make it more intuitive to use. LEDs indicate the functionality. Sorbothane™ molded feet isolate mechanical vibration and improve sonic resolution. | 
