Got to sit down the other day and listen to the latest Creek Destiny Integrated/Creek Destiny CDP with Monitor Audio RS6's. I was very impressed, so so neutral. Probably the most neutral/colorless combo I have ever heard. But was able to still sound very musical, fast, airy and dynamic. Not boring at all like a lot of Flat sounding gear is taken as. It comes at roughly the same price as the Bryston B60R sst and I would say it easily competes against it. It is officially on my short list of up and coming purchases. Now that the theater is done with the screen and projector I am starting to itch for two channel gear. Looking and listening to new stuff lately. The Creek Destiny is now on my short list. With the B60R-SST and a model of YBA that my dealer has. It helps that the Creek had great synergy with the RS6's as I already have these. Came home and read a few reviews on it including one by Stereophile and they too also used the RS6's for the review, and claimed it was a great match. Interesting. Well, for now its back to enjoying movies and music on two systems I am more than pleased with. But if anything breaks...lol it will give me an excuse to bring some of this stuff home. Anyway, thought I would just throw it out there with how impressed I was with Mr. Creeks latest design. Blows the doors of any Creek product I have ever heard. Cheers.
Synergy is very very important, and Creek makes great gear. I wonder how the YBA amp would mate with the RS6's ? YBA amps also have an excellent reputation for being very true to the music.
Be careful with the Destiny CD player. There have been a lot of complaints about mechanical noise with that player. If your dealer is good then go for it...just keep in mind if you have problems with it the Creek family and their US distributor couldn't care less.
Really? Is there issues with their customer support Art? I would still keep my Apollo and try to pair the creek with that. Or at least demo the unit with the Apollo. I already know Bryston has good synergy with it, so im not overly worried.
Another thing that worries me as well. I know Creek own Epo speakers. Does anyone know why it is that when you go to the Music Hall site it lists Creek and Epo in there? Does Music Hall own these companies? If so, I am not sure I would like that.
My dealer is phasing out NAD as he said he is fed up with the quality control issues he is having and their customer service. In replacement, he has brought in Cambridge Audio fully stocked, Rega fully stocked, and now Creek and can also get Music Hall. He can also get all the Epos speakers. He also brought in the new Anthem Integrated which was very beefy. 225 watts at 8ohms. It sounded mean. But musically it just wasnt there compared to the Creek Destiny. Any more info or experience with their stuff would be greatly appreciated.
Oh and YBA as well. Any opinions on YBA. French stuff and thats all the knowledge I have.lol. They look neat, sound very good, but need to have more listening time with it.
YBA costs more than I can pay...world class stuff at the limit, smokes most classes, provided you will pay 30% more. outstanding gear, their Hc amp is super good, but overpriced. It's rather like Classe that way, and I would put the performance in line for power amps, not IA's
Anyone ever hear the big Cambridge Audio 840a integrated? Is it much better than the other offerings they have? If not, then it probably isn't worth my time to listen.
Music Hall is the distributor...and Roy don't like to service what he sells. Luke Creek may the rudest SOB I've dealt with in any audio company at any time.
I have a used Creek 4330 and Epos ELS3's and that's as close as I intend to come to giving money to the Creek empire. I have no respect for how they do business. The Destiny is a great sounding piece and actually the Evolution 2 isn't bad in it's price class.
Now if Mike would only wave bye bye to Luke or pretend he doesn't know how Luke's been handling the biz then perhaps I could deal with them, until then...not so much.
You know what you're getting with Bryston. The service, waranty, build quality, I could go on and on. To my ears, the B60 sounds a good deal better than the Creek. Maybe not immediately, but sit down with it for a while.
I haven't heard YBA gear. Everything I've heard about them has been very positive, expect their CD players. They sound very good, but have/had big design flaws and obscure parts, according to a guy who posted here a while back that is an independent service tech. I've heard some complaints from others as well. None were sound quality related.
I've also heard what Art says about anything Music Hall related.
From a good company standpoint, of the ones you listed, if you want something inexpensive Cambridge works. Spending some more cash, Bryston. Both have their rep for a reason.
Thanks for the input Stu. After some texting back and forth with my dealer today and a friend of mine (their lead installer) I am set up for an audition next weekend between the newest model of Bryston 100sst model and a YBA(Audio Refinement) model. 1 on 1. I have decided that if I am going to do this. Do it once, go big, and live with it for many years. My dealer says that YBA is as good as anything. So I figure give it a shot. The Creek Destiny is good but appears come with a crap warranty and company backing.
I really like the B100. It sounds great, has enough power to drive just about anything, and is very flexible. The DAC and phono stage are both phenominal. The B100 and BP16 pre-amp (B100's pre-amp section is the BP16) are the only ones that can have both phono and DAC at the same time.
The options add to the price, and they ain't cheap. But the good thing about them is they can be added later on if you want them. The remote is another expensive option that I would skip personally. I think its about $500 or so. Its a very good remote and seems like its priced accordingly, but no matter which way you look at it, its $500. Get a Harmony universal for a few hundred cheaper. I got one made for the XBox 360 and it controls everything - B60, Apollo, TV, etc. It was $100, but I got it on clearence for $40 at Best Buy.
The Audio Refinement amp is a very good amp. It sounds different. Better or worse is a presonal thing. I'm not sure if YBA still makes the Audio Refinement line any more. If not, expect a discount. A few good places in the States were selling NIB units for pretty cheap.
If you want a remote with the B60, you need to order Bryston's remote. The non-remote versions don't have a motor for the volume control, and can't be retro-fitted with them for some reason. Universal remotes will work if its the B60 is the "R" version, but won't if it isn't. The B60's remote option is about $300 or so.
All B100s can be remote controlled, regardless of if you bought the remote or not.
If you want a bryston and a remote, check out Audio Circle. James Tanner posted something about price changes and their new remote.
Thanks for the info Stu. I think the B60 would also be plenty of power for the MA speakers. They are not a heavy load.
Your right about the YBA they make the Passion, the Design and the Reference? Might be a few more. When you get up into the Design and Reference it starts getting beyond my price limit.lol.
My older Bryston gear was just delivered this morning and both pieces are getting a full gutting and new insides put in. I talked to an engineer there and he was telling me that they still use a lot of the same parts as they do in the new amps so he will update as much as he could for me. If they come back to my satisfaction, which coming from Bryston, the probably will. Then I wont see a need for a new piece for a while. I hope.lol.
Exactly Stu. Absolutely amazing. My dealer is a full Bryston dealer, and I am also good friends with the owners of Audiomation who are also Bryston delears. All of them not only love the sound and quality of Bryston gear, but are always raving on how amazing their service and support is.
The lead tech I talked to (Mike Pickett) explained in detail what they would do. I gave them the go-ahead to not only fix or replace existing parts, but to upgrade everything that could be as well. He said, marketing aside, that most of the parts used in my 3B they still use today in the newest amps. I made a comment " I am sure the new SST2 amps would blow mine away in sound quality" he chuckled and said, "you know, the technology hasnt changed hardly at all, and while we have made small improvements, when you get your amp back the difference in sound from it to a new one will be marginally small. " That alone put a huge smile on my face, as well did the whole conversation we had. Very nice people, and the engineers there give it to you straight. None of that sales bull that is fed to you every time you call another company. A company I can name but wont does that every time you call them. They go on and on about how much better their new products are and how much better they sound well in the meantime they are taking the same innards and just putting a new case on it and then marketing it as a hugely improved product.lol.
My B60 is not an SST, but can be changed to one. James Tanner said it most likely has to be sent to Canada. The US center said it can't be done here. I want to see what it would cost and if anything else can be upgraded. Can you PM me Mike Pickett's number? He's on Audio Circle every now and then, but it'll be hard to find him to PM him.
Just to add that the bryston setup sounds much better than ever. So smooth, and what I really notice is the sound stage is twice as big. Well worth it. Very happy customer right here.
Nick, the bill for all of that was 400$ or so? If you dont want to quote the bill, thats ok, but I think thats the price that was bantied about. Thats a very fair proposition indeed.
The total bill with Shipping both ways, and I had to add a new 3B box, with taxes, was 536 bucks.
380 dollars of that was just the 3B. That price was for the 5 things I mentioned before. I get the "Tech Tag" inside the box and it looks like while they had it apart they also replaced a few other things as well, free of charge. Including all new green lights. Great service, top notch, and for all new parts inside?Great price.
The guys at Bryston were telling me they dont see those amps come in, in that good of shape. Hardly ever. So now its as minty on the inside as it is on the outside.lol.
To add. The power cables they put on both units is top notch, and they gutted the whole power switch and added new ones as well.
Overall I am very happy. The sound was great before but now it over exceeds my expectations big time. Even my wife noticed a difference. That is saying something.
Bravo to Bryston. Great product, and even better, great service. Oh and on any part they replaced...25 year warranty.lol. That's a product built to last. Cheers.
There is no way to argue with that Nick, but you should have delivered it and picked it up as well. Maybe you could have seen it on the test bench? That would have been really cool.
lol I thought of that. But the shipping only ended up costing me 30 dollars as I shipped it from work so that was free. Just had to pay Bryston for the shipping back. I couldn't hardly drive down there for that.lol. * 75 minutes one way to Bryston*. But it would have been sweet to see it on the bench. I have seen pictures of their test/work benches and it looks very similar to mine at work. I just wish I didn't build Digital Surveilance systems and built Bryston power amps instead.LOL!!!
Money well spend indeed. What could I get for 500 bucks that would even come close to what I have right now. I got the pre amp for 410 plus 100 to refurb it like new. The power amp I payed 600 and 380 to refurb it like new. Two new Bryston pieces for under 1500.lol Thats how I roll Nuck buddy. lol.
YBA costs more than I can pay...world class stuff at the limit, smokes most classes, provided you will pay 30% more. outstanding gear, their Hc amp is super good, but overpriced. It's rather like Classe that way, and I would put the performance in line for power amps, not IA's
Is there another line for YBA that you were referring to Nuck? I was looking at the YBA YA201 and YC201. These run $1,500 new. Not that expensive. On Audiogon they seem to go for half off. I wonder why. Maybe for the reason Stu cites, design flaws and obscure parts. Anyways, it's very tempting. Is there a better buy for $800ish? Just hope you don't get a bad one I guess.
Dan you are looking at the budget YBA line which replaced their budget brand Audio Refinement...everything else they make is way upscale from there. They are on sale brand new at Music Direct for a very low price right now.
YBA costs more than I can pay...world class stuff at the limit, smokes most classes, provided you will pay 30% more. outstanding gear, their Hc amp is super good, but overpriced. It's rather like Classe that way, and I would put the performance in line for power amps, not IA's
That's a fair line of thought, Dan, and accurate as far as Classe goes. Like, run away from a CAP151 IA, but find a clean CA101, and you have 800 for a good amp. Stretch it a bit and shop for a CA200/201, and you can drive any speaker. Preamps in the older lines are generally good, the DR series is standout from the DR3 to the DR5 preamp, all with very good phono and build, all are supported in service. Some of david reich's best stuff.
