HI-FI WORLD Easy Voyage
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REVIEW HI-FI WORLD Easy Voyage Noel Keywood lives with the new Creek Voyage i20 amplifier and finds it easy going. reek’s latest Voyage i20 become in Creek’s own words “a From a compact chassis amplifier I’m reviewing here premium product”. measuring 430mm wide, 80mm high reminded me of their first This is a powerful ‘digital’ and 350m deep the i20 delivers 120 amplifier, the CAS4040 amplifier, meaning it has an on-board Watts into 8 Ohms and 225 Watts from 1982. What that digital section, unlike the Evolution into 4 Ohms our measurements simple but clever design did 100A we have heavily used as a showed – in line Cwas reproduce music without nas- reference amplifier from some years with Creek’s ties – no gritty transistor distortion. now. I’ve been writing about ‘digital’ claimed power The Voyage i20 carries on the Creek amps recently as they are morphing output. As today’s sound with exemplary ability. into an interesting place to be. Until loudspeakers are And there’s good reason. It recently their on-board digital-to- rated as 6 Ohms is Mike Creek. Still very much in analogue convertors (DACs) have nominal make the charge today, his knowledge of audio been a low-cost addition unable to power figure 155 amplifier design is extraordinary compete with more sophisticated and Watts then – more – as I know from long and intense expensive external DACs, but that than enough to go explanations to me about where is changing. Audiolab, Quad and Leak very loud. every electron was going and how it are all now using acclaimed ESS DAC Size-wise the should behave! chips, whilst Creek have chosen to i20 is similar to our In the new Voyage i20 that’s a lot use an AK4493EQ DAC chip from 100 Watt Evolution more places to go and many more Asahi Kasei Microsystems (AKM, 100A. How come? ways to behave – and there is big Japan) they tell me. This is a premium Purists will need to price increase as a result, to £4495. chip, part of AKM’s Velvet Sound take a deep breath: Where Creeks have been affordable range that I know well justifies the it uses a switch- in the past, £99 for the CAS4040 in title; they are even more “velvety” in mode power supply. 1982 equating to £352 today (Bank sound than ESS chips, albeit by minor No big toroidal of England inflation calculator) and degree. But a top chip all the same, mains transformer our Evolution 100A costing £1499 with quoted 123dB dynamic range any more, with when reviewed in our March 2015 – as you might hope in a premium consequent issue (£1674 today), the new i20 has priced amplifier. shrinkage in weight HI-FI WORLD MARCH 2021 www.hi-fiworld.co.uk REVIEW HI-FI WORLD and size. It's a custom design they strongly rolled off upper treble, Slow sample-rate is available: I’d suggest told us, allowing the amplifier to and Slow+ were less aggressive at setting a Mac to 96kHz output handle low loads with ease, with doing so, whilst Sharp and Sharp+ sample-rate in its AudioMidi Setup minimal power reduction. extended response to 21kHz with menu. But good to see the abilities In keeping with price, the i20’s just slight roll down to take out of the AKM declared and available; front panel is slickly sculpted and the sting out of CD. The lack of the TOSLINK optical inputs work finished, a work of art. The rear case correlation between handbook and up to 192kHz I found during tests, is a conventional pressed steel type production suggested to me the i20 important to avoid silence from – say with heavy folded steel cover. There’s was being built and programmed by – a digital portable player optically a master power (rocker) switch at a sub-contractor and a quick ferret connected (e.g. Astell&Kern) and rear and a soft-start at front on the around revealed it is made in Slovakia playing a 192kHz sample rate file. left rotary control. These functions What I noted immediately is The volume control at right can also exist on a supplied remote that the single pair of XLR-socket be pressed to Mute and the remote control. The left rotary primarily balanced inputs can run through the also provides this function. There selects inputs, but it has a push-to- volume control or direct. There is a balance control too. You get a select function that brings up a Menu are three standard (unbalanced) standard 1/4in (6.3mm) headphone on the display panel with various Line inputs, one occupied by the socket on the front panel driven adjustable settings. Those that caught Phono stage board when fitted, by its own amplifier, with the ability my attention were five PCM digital plus a Preamp output. Digital inputs to mute the loudspeakers whilst filters (Sharp, Sharp+, Slow, Slow+, comprise two opticals (TOSLINK), headphone listening. Geeks can even Natural), plus two DSD filters (Wide, two electricals (phono sockets) and check out heatsink temperature, 28 Narrow). There are also gain settings one USB. The AKM DAC chip has on- degree C in our case, the thermal to increase sensitivity, only available in board DSD decoding, only accessible limit being 90 degrees C. Protection start-up mode, not in main Menu. by using DoP over the USB link. You’ll circuits guard against overheating, d.c. Some peculiarities. The i20 has an need the Audirvana+ computer music offset and over-current. The output optional plug-in phono stage board player or similar to manage this. stage is Class G, meaning a small amp for LP and ours was so fitted. The Connecting up via USB (MacBook supplemented by a larger one to website mentions “RIAA filtering, to Pro) brought up a declared menu handle peaks, a small G logo lights up reduce disc warp frequencies” but from the AKM chip that 768kHz in the display when this happens; I got this IEC filter is not available from the Menu (software control), only on the internal Phono circuit board (hardware control), meaning the cover must be removed to get at it – best left to a dealer. The Manual says there are six PCM filters but our full production sample had five, with different naming. Changing filter produced no effect; it appeared stuck on Slow under tests, when I was using the rotary selector at left. The remote control The Sequel Mk4 MM phono board, fitted to our sample. DIP did, however, work and measurement switches at left set capacitive loading and IEC warp filter on/off. showed that with CD, Natural most The board is best removed to set. www.hi-fiworld.co.uk MARCH 2021 HI-FI WORLD REVIEW HI-FI WORLD good bass control and expression, obvious in string bass lines with humans involved, such as that behind Holly Cole singing the laconic Train Song. Here the amplifier dug out some texture in the bass as well as giving it strong dynamic push. Plenty of fine detail was mined from the vivid guitar of Nils Lofgren’s Keith Don’t Go, our ESL-X XStat panels loving what they were fed. The furiously strummed strings slashed out of the ‘speakers, as they should, but the Creek sounded deliciously sweet; I believe AKM’s Velvet Sound DAC contributed strongly here. At this point I was also aware of a solid, cohesive sense to the sound that comes from a good digital amplifier with DAC tightly connected to the amplifier stages, with no intervening cables and connectors that hamper an external DAC. The only caveat here being I hear this on the XStat panels Creek's custom design switch-mode power supply (right) is substan- that are free of loudspeaker phase tial, but still lighter than transformers. It delivers a voltage-regulated anomalies, but not on conventional supply. At top left sits the Phono board and below lie heatsinks for dynamic loudspeakers that are just the Class G amplifier that uses Sanken output transistors. a hopeless mess in this respect. If you have a panel loudspeaker it to do so, but only at shatteringly Creek say, avoiding this problem. though, Magneplanar or Martin Logan high volume. Hi-res digital was fed in via USB perhaps, this is a digital amplifier There’s a Bluetooth short-range from a MacBook Pro running from worth hearing. radio link that connected immediately battery again to avoid earth loop Spinning LP was a must, so I from my iPhone 10X with no codes noise that measurement shows connected up our Timestep Evo or difficulty. degrades DAC dynamic range. I used modified Technics SL-1210 Mk2 the Audirvana+ player to deliver DSD. Direct Drive turntable, with SME309 SOUND QUALITY It’s sort-of difficult to describe a arm and an Audio Technica VM750 I ran the i20 with our Martin Creek amplifier. “Quietly powerful” SH moving magnet (MM) cartridge. Logan ESL-X hybrid electrostatic perhaps. A small start and steerage in There was total silence until needle loudspeakers and also used it with the right direction. Creek amplifiers hit groove and I got to hear a rich the B&W and Triangle loudspeakers were never a sonic assault course, rendition of Dire Straits Brothers In in this issue, to see how it fared so much as a refined way to listen to Arms (Mobile Fidelity, 45rpm) with with different loads. A useful feature music, underpinned by bass strength firm bass line underpinning Ride of the Evolution 100A as a review that gives a sense of underlying Across The River.