I have to admit that I have been and still am a loyal Croft customer.

Recently I had my Series7R monoblocks upgraded by Glenn (Croft) from the standard 55W to 110W. It has helped them to sound more composed and precise in the lower frequency range, taking better control of the speakers, although the latter are supposed to be easy loads (Harbeth SHL5 Plus 40th Anniversary). Mids and highs sound as they used to, so all is fine.

I have recently added a NOS (non-oversampling) DAC (LAB12 DAC1 SE+) to the system and it sounds sublime with the Micro 25R and the monos. However, I’ve come to realize that now the system’s performance with digital files is better than with the analog chain, consisting of a Roksan Xerxes - Audiomods Series 5 - The Cartridge Man Music Maker III. I remember the same turntable used to sound great in my other hi-fi system, with Croft SuperMicro IIR and Series 7, but in the primary system the turntable sounds comparatively congested, shut-in and rolled-of with the Micro 25R, although the preamp has a couple of great NOS Tesla E83CC in the phono stage. I’m scratching my head…

I think it’s about time I considered an upgrade of the Micro 25R preamp to RS spec. I am wondering though, whether at the same time it would make sense to separate the phono stage and so end up with a Micro 25RS line only + RIAA RS.

Thoughts/suggestions, please?

I thank everyone in advance for their contribution.