Croft Twinstar - puzzling words !

[IHP]

I post this as a proud owner of the Croft 25R/7 combination, which I've had for 5 years and will probably never change.

There's an ad. for a Twinstar on ebay which, perhaps unwisely, uses the following review extract......

"The Twinstar amplifier inhabits a different world to most amplifiers. It produces a lot of distortion, at all frequencies and output levels - no less than 0.7% with around 0.1% being the limit of audibility the Twinstar breaches this limit by some margin, so its distortion will be audible. With an 8 ohm load second harmonic dominated, but there was a lot of third too at higher levels. With a 4ohm load distortion rose to 1.6% with clearly waveform triangulation from third harmonic. Although distortion levels were fairly constant, suggesting low or perhaps negligible feedback, the spectrum analyser clearly showed upper harmonics. The Twinstar's appeal will be mainly subjective. Listen to it carefully against other amplifiers, using material you know. This amplifier does not measure well."

I've never looked at amp. specs/measurements other than output, not that I'm a disbeliever or anything, they just don't mean anything to me. The reason I post this is utter curiosity, blind faith leads me to believe that a below par Croft amp. has not been produced. Anyone had/currently own one ?

[struth]

If it's true then I would think it's faulty assuming its audible

[Jazid]

Well I know Glen's a bit of a maverick but I still don't think he'd put that review on his own website if it was a review of a faulty amp. Nothing in it for him except embarrassment surely?
I suspect it's an 'error of commission' design, produced to deliver a particular sound signature. If you like the distortion then you'll be in heaven, if not it will sound 'harmonically rich' and convey an over ripe reinterpretation of what's on the disc.
YMMV, personally I like Glen's house sound so...

Sent from my BLA-L09 using Tapatalk

[hifi_dave]

Where did that review come from ?

There was a short time before the current range, when Glenn's "distributor" made Croft products without Glenn's blessing or knowledge. Some of these were very iffy.

[DSJR]

All I can say from personal experience and a technical review on the original Micro preamp which then was a steal for £150, is that the *preamps* are technically fine, valves or not and measurement issues were from test equipment with low input impedances being used from the tape outputs! The Stereophile review on the current Integrated baeing a classic case in point. My last Series 4PP preamp was a bit of a softie on the line stages and the phono stage was load critical if the tape record outs were used, far more than the 25R that's descended from it, but Glenn helped me go half way with some beneficial tweaks and he would have happily had it back to finish off the updates, mainly on the phono stage, which on his early models was load critical (mine had 500k log pots and some had 1M I think - not needed now with his current design).

The Series 7 power amp series should be regarded more as a valve amp as it measures that way and sounds delightful into suitable speakers.


Please don't worry, Glenn is a great designer and his products are stable and without lashings of feedback to bring measured distortion down. To get genuinely better in all ways, involves far greater complexity (and VERY careful design so the complexity doesn't take the music away), higher costs and of course even more expensive bling casework to put it all in ;)

[Jazid]

Review is here, where it originated I am not sure

http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk/reviews/26_rev.html

Interesting about the distributor helping glen's product range along, I had no idea such monkey business went on in the cottage industry world :eyebrows:

[Volante]

I have a Twinstar "IV" (upgraded to "V") by Glen and it's a briliant amp. It's a hybrid valve/mosfet amp, valve regulated, and behaves like a valve amp with real ooomph and grip. It's a keeper for me. Don't understand the review although there were several versions of the Twinstar of course.