Croft or Firebottle.

[Bluesboy65]

Shall keep this brief,have posted before no replies,would I be better with a Croft or Firebottle for a Phono amp,cheers.

[Gazjam]

Firebottle mk1 got VERY close to an excellent £1000 valve output phono stage, the FB2 which I own is better than the mk1.
Not heard any of Glen's equipment.

[struth]

I'd ditto Gary's post. The firebottle at its price level is hard to beat. It has presence.

[Wakefield Turntables]

I own the croft 25 micro and it has an excellent phonostage, I have not heard a stand alone croft phonostage. I have to say that the firebottle mk 1 wiped the floor with the phonostage built into my croft preamp. I would go FIREBOTTLE. :)

[Ali Tait]

Me too, Firebottle all the way.

[Floyddroid]

I am a Firebottle user too and i know first hand how much better it is than the Croft. It's a no brainer, Firebottle all the way.

[mikeyb]

Hi,

Maybe not relevant to your question, but I had the Firebottle 1 at the same time as a Trigon Vanguard (£500) and a Whest 2 (£800) and I preferred the Firebottle.

The Trigon sounded pretty good on first listen, dip switches made it easy to match my Eroica HOMC cart, a quick swap to the Whest showed it to be slightly better at picking out more detail and slightly wider soundstage, however it didn't like my mains as it popped and clicked everytime the plinth heater in the kitchen kicked in or out, so that made the whest a nono for me.

I then tried the Firebottle and it was a definite improvement on both of the others, bass was better defined and had more punch, the soundstage was again better, but what was really noticeable was the depth of the sound from front to back if that makes sense, the sound felt more enveloping.

Tests were done using my Michell Gyrodec with HR PSU, TQ Tellurium Claymore amp (itself having a pretty decent phono stage built in that reviews said would rival £500 separate one), Goldring Eroica HOMC cart into PMC 21 speakers.

Both my dad and my daughters fiancé all agreed with my findings.

Did I buy one? Well no, because right after I had ordered a Firebottle 2 from Alan, my wife was made redundant so I had to cancel and my one went to Floyddroid instead 😢

Still toying with the idea of getting the 2, it will all depend on 'The Boss' getting her full redundancy package as promised, only time will tell as the Chief Executive very kindly told them they were to forgo their bonus from last year even though they made profit 😠 Ok for him with his company built house in Edinburgh with no mortgage that he is getting to keep, anyway I digress.

You could always put your name back on the demo list and try and borrow a Croft at the same time to do a direct comparison, we all like the Firebottle, but as with everything in Hifi everyone has different tastes in music and the sound they like, even just now I'm listening to my built in stage wondering why change?

I suppose it was the same when we wanted to get rid of my wife's Mini Cooper S, we ended up with a John Cooper Works version, is it better than what she had? Well it is faster, prettier, and it makes her feel good when driving it, did we need it? No of course we didn't but life is for living and enjoying now, not sitting there in years to come wishing you had done it 😋

I'm in contact with Firebottle as I write this 🙌😁😈

Sorry for waffling.

Mike.

[Bluesboy65]

Thanks for your replies,especially Mike,think I've made my mind up,��

[Ali Tait]

Go for the Firebottle 2, a big step up from the single box version.

[Floyddroid]

I would have to agree Ali.
Go for the Firebottle 2, a big step up from the single box version.