Hi There, Rich From Bristol.

[Rich On TC1]

A little Bit about me. Well my nick name (Rich On TC1) is a simple one.
Rich being my name,and (On TC1) Means (On Tower Crane 1!) This is what i do for a job,i drive Tower Cranes.
I have just gotten back into hifi after selling my house, and down sizeing to a
flat.So the bug has bitten again!
But This time i want to Stamp out upgrade fever for ever,and now want to be more careful on what i purchase.
So i bought the wonderful NaimUniti,and a Rega RP1,and dusted down my record collection.The only part of my old system that remains, is the Epos M12's, and an old phono stage.
I Must thank all the people on the Art Of Sound for my next purchase,
A Croft Micro 25 pre! Yes, i get this baby tomorrow,and it is being delivered to
the site where i work!
I will be keeping an eye out for that van from the high spot of my tower crane cab,and i will be running down the ladder quicker than lightning when it turns up!
The croft 25 pre, will be used as a phono stage to start with.
Music wise, i like most stuff, Rock,punk,indie or what ever.
Thanks for the great forum.:)

[Thing Fish]

Hi Richard, I couldn't stand it up that high all day it would give me the shivers...!

Still I suspect it's a nice view...:)

Welcome to the forum...:cool:

[keiths]

Hi Rich, welcome from me too.

Did you know Elbow have written a song for you?

fX0B9ZpdZEA

:)

Enjoy AoS mate.

[Beechwoods]

Welcome to the forum Rich! Glad you're liking it here!

[Rich On TC1]

Thankyou all for making me feel welcome, and thankyou keith for the video to elbows (The loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver). I have not seen that video, but do know the song!
There is always the seagulls to chat to if you do get lonely up there!

[Alex_UK]

Hellloooo up there! Welcome from me too, enjoy the forum. :)

[technobear]

Ooh, another local... Welcome Richard!

[Rich On TC1]

Thanks Thing fish,keiths,beechwoods,alex uk and technobear for the warm welcome to the site.
Well i got my Croft Micro 25 pre today after what was a long but worthwhile wait.
And all i can say is that the phono stage blew me away!
The bass was solid, and so deep, with a really nice crisp top end.
There seems to be so much more music coming through.
I am very Impressed,and if it was not for the AOS, i would have known nothing about this wonderful pre amp.
And to think it needs to run in,and will sound even better.
I just don't know what to say.
Thankyou all, and thankyou Glenn!

[technobear]

Ha ha, Croft strikes again :lol:

I may be using the Bel Canto for main system duties but the Croft Syntegra is still here in the bedroom system. I just can't bring myself to sell it.

[Rich On TC1]

Tell me about your croft syntegra.
Have you had it from new? and how old is the amp?

[technobear]

Tell me about your croft syntegra.
Have you had it from new? and how old is the amp?

I'm the third owner I think. I'm not sure how old it is. It's definitely from this century though. It's a valve/MOSFET hybrid as you would expect. It can put out 90 Watt peaks into 8 ohms if the music isn't too heavy. The bass can wilt a little at the limit but by that time my Zu's are playing insanely loud anyway. (The Zu's are 12 ohm so the max power is a little less than 90).

Inside it's all boutique components and point-to-point silver wiring. The case is polished stainless steel with a black perspex fascia and silver knobs. It retailed for £2400 (ouch!).

The Croft has had a few upgrades since I've had it. The Alps volume pot was replaced with a Glasshouse Takman/Seiden stepped attenuator (big jump in transparency with commensurate reduction of noise). The source selector switch was also upgraded to an Elna.

The valves were thoroughly rolled until I settled on GE JAN 5751 cryo's. The amp came with Ei ECC83's but I don't know if they were original. They were a little rose tinted. The 5751's rock without losing all the good things about valves.

It's very transparent and unfailingly musical. It's a fast amp too. Superb transient response matches my speakers really well.

It was well received at Scalford earlier this year:

http://www.technobear.btinternet.co.uk/images/Scalford-2011.jpg