Croft Super Micro A IV Octal has arrived

[Lawrence001]

She's a beaut, great condition and sounds wonderful too. I sold my Micro Basic a couple of years ago (originally bought on here) as it didn't quite do it for me (bit soft, slight lack of detail and drive) but this one is a different kettle of fish as you'd expect from the model down from the Mega Micro. The main attraction was I have been after an octal valve based pre for some time (plus its rarity, never seen one for sale before) and this lives up to all my expectations and a bit more, despite it's age. Basically, totally quiet, very clean sound, pure and detailed with plenty of air and space around the instruments and no sign of roll off at the frequency extremes. Bass is all there but not woolly. It also has enough energy and attack to keep me happy. This won't be going anywhere for a while.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180510/ad626972d5d4841e784f322eedb1adab.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180510/bfae98e6eb60ac3a1893b5858bd5965e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180510/06f05ebc32e212234efe79e6904e9895.jpg

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[Jimbo]

Nice.:)

[Yomanze]

Cool, definitely not cat friendly though ha ha!

[chris@panteg]

Like the top grill, so that you can see inside.
It reminds me of my old Concordant pre I used to own, very cottage industry, and like Doug Dunlop the right channel sockets are at the top, he told me he did this to confuse and annoy the reviewers lol.

[Primalsea]

The croft preamps are really starting to pique my interest. In many ways the circuits seemed flawed if you look at them from a design standpoint where best possible measurements rule, but I keep hearing that they sound so musical.

[Bigman80]

The croft preamps are really starting to pique my interest. In many ways the circuits seemed flawed if you look at them from a design standpoint where best possible measurements rule, but I keep hearing that they sound so musical.They do sound good. No arguing with that regardless of the circuits. I enjoy them

[Primalsea]

Although if l owned one I think that I would have to connect the two volume knobs with a rubber band, so that they would move together.

[Yomanze]

Although if l owned one I think that I would have to connect the two volume knobs with a rubber band, so that they would move together.

Yep a pragmatic way to sort it. I would be driven nuts by trying to match them up, and I do adjust the volume a lot.

[Lawrence001]

I've had a similar arrangement in a pre before that had a higher output and they were slightly out of sync. This got annoying as you always had to have one a bit higher than the other and adjust minutely by ear. However these are well matched and less sensitive so as long as they look like they are set the same, there is no audible imbalance, so I'm surprisingly happy with the arrangement.

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[Audio Al]

Although if l owned one I think that I would have to connect the two volume knobs with a rubber band, so that they would move together.

I like the dual volume knobs , allows you to optimise left and right sound depending on your seating position relevent to speaker position

[Marco]

Nice one... A picture with the lid off would be good, Lawrence. Always enjoy admiring Glenn's superb soldering techniques, when doing point-to-point wiring, and super-short signal paths! :)

Marco.

[Wakefield Turntables]

We can all have a nosy with the lid off and we (those of us who own Croft pre's) can help with upgrade suggestions. I've a shed load of them if your interested. ;)

[Lawrence001]

I like the dual volume knobs , allows you to optimise left and right sound depending on your seating position relevent to speaker positionYes, and optimise for hearing problems, my right ear is a bit down, I find voices always to the left to the point that I often think there's a fault with something. Now I can adjust and get the vocals back in the centre :)

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[2kings]

I have a one-off all valve 2 box pre based on the Mega Micro built by the guru himself....this one has went back to GC for service and tweaking to pair the KT150s in the Series 4SA. GC modified and upgraded the Series 4SA to take the KT150s and boy...the combo blew me away...

[Lawrence001]

Have read about that but never heard a stock one, yet alone a hotrod version. Having had a taste of the sound from mine I can only imagine how good your system sounds.

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[2kings]

Some photos of the Mega Micro based preamp and the S4 with KT150s.
235412354223543

[Jimbo]

Some photos of the Mega Micro based preamp and the S4 with KT150s.
235412354223543


They look stunning and I am sure they sound just as good!:stalks::)

[Lawrence001]

Nice, the pre looks like an super upgraded version of the push pull version of the Super Micro A whereas I have the Octal version.

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