Croft Micro Basic 25 Valve Pre Amp

[Themis]

That's my opinion, too : each Croft amp is more than an amp. I consider it as a piece of art.

"Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. "

[Haselsh1]

Marco, you are correct... opting for the Audiolab 8000Q would have given me a perfect match in looks and sound but quite a few years ago I had a valve preamp with transistor power amp and the sound was to die for. The preamp imparted its typical tube sound with the power amp adding all of the guts of a 150Wpc tranny amp. I therefore, rightly or wrongly, have concluded that I may be able to capture a similar sound all over again. And, all for a very reasonable price.

[The Grand Wazoo]

The combination of valve pre / transistor power works very well for me too. I'm sure you'll be glad to return to it Shaun.

[Rare Bird]

So what's up with a transistor Pre/Tube Power!!

[The Grand Wazoo]

Nothing in theory, except that Shaun's looking for a pre to go with his transistor power amps.

[DSJR]

I should add that the Croft preamp doesn't sound "traditionally valvey" like, say, an EAR 834 does. the one thing it seems to share with good valve product is not a rosy tone, more like a "feel" for the performance, which I think is what the valve lovers here like about their gear, which is often race-tuned to within an inch of its life.

Using a transistor preamp with a valve power amp could be fraught with potential danger I think. transistor preamps can have a hugely wide bandwidth, domestic valve power amps less so and one can get slew-rate difficulties where the preamp is "faster" than the power amp. My knowledge abruptly runs out here, but I think that's right.

Due to intentional bandwidth limiting, some of Naim's better models can make excellent prreamps for valve power amps. back in the Jurassic era (it seems), we successfully used a NAC12s/Snaps with EAR 509's.

I'm sure that modern valve power amps have a wide and capable frequency range and the comments above may not apply. I did use my AVI preamp (-3db @ 300KHz) with my Quad II's (Gawd knows ) with no trouble though.......

[Haselsh1]

The combination of valve pre / transistor power works very well for me too. I'm sure you'll be glad to return to it Shaun.

Wazoo, way back when, I used a World Audio Design KLP-1 preamp which, if memory serves me correct, used 6922 valves. I replaced the original valves with Harma Cryo valves but the sound of the preamp was as smooth as silk and it complemented the transistor power amp perfectly. Before the transistors returned I was using a WAD 300B push pull amplifier which was the finest sounding amplifier I have ever experienced but unfortunately had a whole host of problems. Both the power amp and preamp were built for me by World Audio at a cost of around 2k. Those were the days.

Back to reality; I'm looking forward to getting the Croft preamp and trying it out with the 8000M's. I am absolutely sure the Audiolab's are transparent enough to show up the traits of the Croft. One thing the Audiolab's are is clinical. After I have the credit card paid off I then need to look at my vinyl section...!

Of course if I wasn't self employed I'd have a shedload more money to play with but there is something very satisfying about not being told what to do by a twerp.

[Ali Tait]

If you ever fancy a WAD 300b PP again,I may be persuaded to part with mine...

[DSJR]

There is supposed to be an "R" version later, with some beefed up (if not boutique) components. bearing in mind the drastc change in sound some tube-rolling did on mine, I'm wondering what can be done with the standard 25 article?

[Ali Tait]

Always worth doing a bit of tube rolling.It's fun if nothing else.