View Full Version : This morning Croft pre & power
Im have the chance of trying out a Croft pre and power 7 series this morning a friend of a friend is bringing them round to my place so we can have bit of a session with them i will let you all know how i get on with them.
What are the speakers, Dan?
What are the speakers, Dan?
Ruark talismans ll's the chap who is bringing the croft's round ,may want to buy them
Should work and should be interesting...
Im have the chance of trying out a Croft pre and power 7 series this morning a friend of a friend is bringing them round to my place so we can have bit of a session with them i will let you all know how i get on with them.
What a great morning - enjoy!:)
Ok bit of a surprise my mates mate also turned up with his A30(that he bought off my mate.i know very confusing) so we listened to the Quads first then Crofts then the A30,im no reviewer so bear with me this is how we felt about all 3 amps pretty much agreed,Quads lovely and smooth,Crofts very clear and nice,A30 seemed to force the music out. So we all said the Crofts sounded very good clean very detailed nice tight powerful bass and very good mid,the A30 sounded good nice top end good mid and nice low bass maybe a bit slack but it seemed to force the music out with great urgency,the Quads almost like liquid sound nice and easy best mid of all we all agreed on that. So we rigged the Quads back up but something was missing from the Quads,so we rigged up the Croft pre well bugger me WOW what a pre opened up the Quad 303 like stink WOW what a power amp didnt realise it was such a good power amp we all sat there saying f*$k me that sound is lush music was flowing out of the little 303,so we all came to a conclusion the Croft pre is fantastic great Pre amp,after all that we agreed Croft pre with a 303 what a combination,chap with his A30 wasn't impressed so swiftly went home (think he had bit of strop on) so me and mate's mate sat there enjoying this combo,so think i be giving Glenn Croft a ring to build me a pre amp but slightly different spec,but if i was to get a different amp all together for me it would be a fully blown valve amp but old skool,not another SS or hybrid. It was good to try this out at i least i know what direction i would go in personally.Probly bits i missed out but hey im just a hifi head :) And it was the best morning ive had in ages
,so we rigged up the Croft pre well bugger me WOW what a pre opened up the Quad 303 like stink WOW what a power amp didnt realise it was such a good power amp we all sat there saying f*$k me that sound is lush music was flowing out of the little 303,so we all came to a conclusion the Croft pre is fantastic great Pre amp,after all that we agreed Croft pre with a 303 what a combination,chap with his A30 wasn't impressed so swiftly went home (think he had bit of strop on)
lol - I' ve heard the Croft with a 303 so I know what you're saying. Shame about the poor bloke with the Puresound, I'm sure he will be able to sell it on.
Oldpinkman
15-10-2013, 11:47
Erm
You may not need a Pip now, to bear out the view that the 303 is a great little power amp, but there are better phono stages than the 33, 44....:)
Ok bit of a surprise my mates mate also turned up with his A30(that he bought off my mate.i know very confusing) so we listened to the Quads first then Crofts then the A30,im no reviewer so bear with me this is how we felt about all 3 amps pretty much agreed,Quads lovely and smooth,Crofts very clear and nice,A30 seemed to force the music out. So we all said the Crofts sounded very good clean very detailed nice tight powerful bass and very good mid,the A30 sounded good nice top end good mid and nice low bass maybe a bit slack but it seemed to force the music out with great urgency,the Quads almost like liquid sound nice and easy best mid of all we all agreed on that. So we rigged the Quads back up but something was missing from the Quads,so we rigged up the Croft pre well bugger me WOW what a pre opened up the Quad 303 like stink WOW what a power amp didnt realise it was such a good power amp we all sat there saying f*$k me that sound is lush music was flowing out of the little 303,so we all came to a conclusion the Croft pre is fantastic great Pre amp,after all that we agreed Croft pre with a 303 what a combination,chap with his A30 wasn't impressed so swiftly went home (think he had bit of strop on) so me and mate's mate sat there enjoying this combo,so think i be giving Glenn Croft a ring to build me a pre amp but slightly different spec,but if i was to get a different amp all together for me it would be a fully blown valve amp but old skool,not another SS or hybrid. It was good to try this out at i least i know what direction i would go in personally.Probly bits i missed out but hey im just a hifi head :) And it was the best morning ive had in ages
I tried the Croft 25R with my Quad 606 with great results but settled with the Croft25R and Series 7 combination as the Croft 25 /Quad 606 was a bit slow. I found the series 7 a bit more nimble and transparent. I must admit the Croft 25R is an absolutely addictive sounding pre and i am sure the 25 is superb too. I am considering Glenns 25RS but not sure if this would be one step too far in my small listening room.
I tried the Croft 25R with my Quad 606 with great results but settled with the Croft25R and Series 7 combination as the Croft 25 /Quad 606 was a bit slow. I found the series 7 a bit more nimble and transparent. I must admit the Croft 25R is an absolutely addictive sounding pre and i am sure the 25 is superb too. I am considering Glenns 25RS but not sure if this would be one step too far in my small listening room.
Go for it james;)
jon
Rare Bird
15-10-2013, 19:14
If the '33' is surplus i'll have it, the one i have is very lonely
:eyebrows:
Sounds like you had some fun and made your choice Dan. The 25's a great preamp. Only thing with matching to to the Quad 303 is that the Quad has a quoted input sensitivity of 500mV for full output, so the Croft will almost certainly need to have its gain reduced (input sensitivity of the Croft is 150mV for 0.5V RMS output. That's too much gain for a 500mV input sensitivity, especially with CD which outputs 2V. Glenn will be able to alter the Croft...it'll likely need the 470KOhm feedback resistors changing for some 100KOhm ones and then you should have a useable volume range. As the Quad has quite a high input impedance, there should be no issues with impedance matching.
Sorry Rare bird but the 33 is staying at home with me :)
Sounds like you had some fun and made your choice Dan. The 25's a great preamp. Only thing with matching to to the Quad 303 is that the Quad has a quoted input sensitivity of 500mV for full output, so the Croft will almost certainly need to have its gain reduced (input sensitivity of the Croft is 150mV for 0.5V RMS output. That's too much gain for a 500mV input sensitivity, especially with CD which outputs 2V. Glenn will be able to alter the Croft...it'll likely need the 470KOhm feedback resistors changing for some 100KOhm ones and then you should have a useable volume range. As the Quad has quite a high input impedance, there should be no issues with impedance matching.
Yes im gonna ring Glenn and have a chat with him,might even ask him about doing something to the 33.
Sounds like you had some fun and made your choice Dan. The 25's a great preamp. Only thing with matching to to the Quad 303 is that the Quad has a quoted input sensitivity of 500mV for full output, so the Croft will almost certainly need to have its gain reduced (input sensitivity of the Croft is 150mV for 0.5V RMS output. That's too much gain for a 500mV input sensitivity, especially with CD which outputs 2V. Glenn will be able to alter the Croft...it'll likely need the 470KOhm feedback resistors changing for some 100KOhm ones and then you should have a useable volume range. As the Quad has quite a high input impedance, there should be no issues with impedance matching.
Alternatively one could always reduce the sensitivity of the 303, by changing the value of the resistor R101. The input sensitivity (in Volts) is given by R101/4400.
Thus when R101 = 2.2KΩ, the sensitivity is 0.5V. With R101 = 4.7KΩ the sensitivity is 1V, and for R101 = 10KΩ the sensitivity will be 2V.
Bluedroog
15-10-2013, 20:08
I use the Croft 25 with a Quad 909 and love it, the sound is fantastic and does an awful lot right. I did have to have the gain on the pre reduced though.
Alternatively one could always reduce the sensitivity of the 303, by changing the value of the resistor R101. The input sensitivity (in Volts) is given by R101/4400.
Thus when R101 = 2.2KΩ, the sensitivity is 0.5V. With R101 = 4.7KΩ the sensitivity is 1V, and for R101 = 10KΩ the sensitivity will be 2V.
That's a good point Barry. A good match would seem to be R101 being 4K7 with the Croft feedback resistors left at 470K standard.
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