trane
22-06-2009, 20:49
hi, there, all,
i am a newbie here though have read certain threads as a visitor earlier, and now have decided to join this community :)
i am from hungary, where availability of the well-known british hi-fi stuff is realitvely easy due to the now-existing dealer network for i believe all the 'major' brands.
however, judging from the accessible reviews on Croft makes, and backed by some (mainly Ken Kessler) articles, it seems this marque is not as yet at its well-deserved place in its, and your, country regarding it (not) being in the 'mainstream' of hi-fi.
that said, i do not attempt to compare Croft products to e.g. marantz models in any way, only that i'd love to see more Croft items in the mags and the shops.
of course, i am aware of the fact that Croft is quite a unique mark in terms of production, too, thus, there is an evident reason why it's not kinda mass-produced...
now, i hope all above have made sense and has not distracted anyone from reading further - i'll stop the intro, and switch for the main points.
which is, that in spite i have never heard a Croft amplifier, but had read some amazing reviews on them, i decided to go for one, preferably an integrated.
as a valve-fanatic, i had used almost exclusively all-valve design integrated amps before from Audio Innovations (S300, 400, 500) and Audio Note (Oto Phono), and some hungarian-made models under the Pointe trade name (Sima, Medium, Classic), and heard quite a numerous.
whatever pure and truly musical the voicing of those amps had been, i got tired of exchanging the tube compartment in every 2nd year and, thus, decided to go for a tranny amp that sounds as a valve-based one.
the mission was not easy to fulfill since - despite having listened to a lot of ssd makes - the magic of valves, that natural, open and airy midband, had always been missing. the only trannies i loved were the Audio Innovations Alto (MK I), Audio Refinement's Complete, and YBA's Intégré - nothing else.
the first 2 were unfortunately below the potential of my system, so they got ruled out, and the YBA proved to be somewhat uninvolving in the long run, so my quest began again.
and it was then when i got intelligence on Mr. Glenn Croft's ssd Integrated, the GCi. pretty scarce info was available on the amp on the net, but i was somehow directed by an internal force towards that amp - and at once it was at ebay. i could not belive it was there - but did not hesitate much, and acted... i finally managed to win it, and now it's with me :)
the sound is magical: open, airy, sweet, dynamic - almost everything i wanted is laid in front of me in the form of MUSIC by this amp. i am extremely happy to own it :)
however, there are certain issues that i would need help to solve.
namely, the sound is somewhat not transparent enough in the lower midband (btw, here i am talking about nuances, but don't forget, i used to listen to valve amps for ~25 years). as the Integrated uses mosfets, i am not too much surprised at this imo typical charcteristics, though here it is pretty much a minor issue as compared to other (e.g. creek) mosfet desings - it is just not that transparent that i was used to.
so, i wonder if anyone here has the same experience, and whether has managed to solve the matter?
i learnt that in the latest GCi models a new cathode follower circuit, based on a mosfet instead of a valve, was installed and that made the voicing of the amp even better - but do not know in what aspect? btw, is there anyone here having the schematics for that part?
also, i recognised that the inner cabling is made from a shielded type, which may also contribute to the above-described phenomenon, together with the Croft-branded caps at the speaker terminals (by the way, is anyone here familiar with those caps' origin and material?).
moreover, there is a little pcb with a relay for each channel that might as well contribute to (degrade) the sound - what if de-connecting it and taking power directly to the ecc83 valves?
finally, i got nothing with the amp regarding manuals, leaflets, anything - i wonder if there is any of these around available that could be photocopied/photoed and posted to me (at a cost, of course)? not as if it was really needed, e.g. operation is pretty simple - only, i would just like to own it and read it for the sake of it ;)
so, should anyone be in the position of helping with an answer/material, please do not hesitate much but write on - thanks :)
i am a newbie here though have read certain threads as a visitor earlier, and now have decided to join this community :)
i am from hungary, where availability of the well-known british hi-fi stuff is realitvely easy due to the now-existing dealer network for i believe all the 'major' brands.
however, judging from the accessible reviews on Croft makes, and backed by some (mainly Ken Kessler) articles, it seems this marque is not as yet at its well-deserved place in its, and your, country regarding it (not) being in the 'mainstream' of hi-fi.
that said, i do not attempt to compare Croft products to e.g. marantz models in any way, only that i'd love to see more Croft items in the mags and the shops.
of course, i am aware of the fact that Croft is quite a unique mark in terms of production, too, thus, there is an evident reason why it's not kinda mass-produced...
now, i hope all above have made sense and has not distracted anyone from reading further - i'll stop the intro, and switch for the main points.
which is, that in spite i have never heard a Croft amplifier, but had read some amazing reviews on them, i decided to go for one, preferably an integrated.
as a valve-fanatic, i had used almost exclusively all-valve design integrated amps before from Audio Innovations (S300, 400, 500) and Audio Note (Oto Phono), and some hungarian-made models under the Pointe trade name (Sima, Medium, Classic), and heard quite a numerous.
whatever pure and truly musical the voicing of those amps had been, i got tired of exchanging the tube compartment in every 2nd year and, thus, decided to go for a tranny amp that sounds as a valve-based one.
the mission was not easy to fulfill since - despite having listened to a lot of ssd makes - the magic of valves, that natural, open and airy midband, had always been missing. the only trannies i loved were the Audio Innovations Alto (MK I), Audio Refinement's Complete, and YBA's Intégré - nothing else.
the first 2 were unfortunately below the potential of my system, so they got ruled out, and the YBA proved to be somewhat uninvolving in the long run, so my quest began again.
and it was then when i got intelligence on Mr. Glenn Croft's ssd Integrated, the GCi. pretty scarce info was available on the amp on the net, but i was somehow directed by an internal force towards that amp - and at once it was at ebay. i could not belive it was there - but did not hesitate much, and acted... i finally managed to win it, and now it's with me :)
the sound is magical: open, airy, sweet, dynamic - almost everything i wanted is laid in front of me in the form of MUSIC by this amp. i am extremely happy to own it :)
however, there are certain issues that i would need help to solve.
namely, the sound is somewhat not transparent enough in the lower midband (btw, here i am talking about nuances, but don't forget, i used to listen to valve amps for ~25 years). as the Integrated uses mosfets, i am not too much surprised at this imo typical charcteristics, though here it is pretty much a minor issue as compared to other (e.g. creek) mosfet desings - it is just not that transparent that i was used to.
so, i wonder if anyone here has the same experience, and whether has managed to solve the matter?
i learnt that in the latest GCi models a new cathode follower circuit, based on a mosfet instead of a valve, was installed and that made the voicing of the amp even better - but do not know in what aspect? btw, is there anyone here having the schematics for that part?
also, i recognised that the inner cabling is made from a shielded type, which may also contribute to the above-described phenomenon, together with the Croft-branded caps at the speaker terminals (by the way, is anyone here familiar with those caps' origin and material?).
moreover, there is a little pcb with a relay for each channel that might as well contribute to (degrade) the sound - what if de-connecting it and taking power directly to the ecc83 valves?
finally, i got nothing with the amp regarding manuals, leaflets, anything - i wonder if there is any of these around available that could be photocopied/photoed and posted to me (at a cost, of course)? not as if it was really needed, e.g. operation is pretty simple - only, i would just like to own it and read it for the sake of it ;)
so, should anyone be in the position of helping with an answer/material, please do not hesitate much but write on - thanks :)