CR Electronic Design Kalypso valve power amp, made in Southend-on-Sea, Essex

[F575M]

CR Kalypso a valve 15W/Ch integrated amplifier, UK made.

Anyone knows about this company? They are still in business.

http://www.crelectronicdesign.com/

http://www.crdevelopments.com/pdf_files/Brochure%202002-2003.PDF

Cheers,

Horacio

[AD Audio]

They folded a few years ago. I upgraded and repaired some 6c33 monoblocks and was able to get in touch with one of the ex owners to get a schematic. Nice sounding well designed amps, maybe cut the corners on a few specs leading to a few reliability problems but easily resolved

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[F575M]

I am very surprised, the website is dated 2019.

[Opti-cal]

Super amp. Drove anything I paired it with. Very sweet sounding as good EL84 amps are.

Miss it quite a lot actually.

https://i.ibb.co/3rDjBtz/IMAG0143.jpg (https://ibb.co/4m6XPBd)

[Barry]

According to Companies House the company status is active, but they may have ceased manufacture of audio amplifiers.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04558022

[F575M]

There is one for sale here in the States for $817, includes a Project E head amp.

I am not sure if it will have enough power to drive the Devons for classical music, it has only 15W/Ch

[F575M]

Hi,

Did you use a MC transformer or a head-amp?

Cheers,

Horacio

[Opti-cal]

Hi,

Did you use a MC transformer or a head-amp?

Cheers,

Horacio

Hi Horacio,

(if you're asking me) it was a line source only amplifier but I was using it with a Clearaudio Basic+ phono stage paired with a Clearaudio Concept TT with Benz Micro ACE low output cart.

I think they did make a version of the amp with a phono stage incorporated and I'd have no reason to suspect it was anything less than quality. (Might only be MM from what I remember in which case for an MC I'd use a decent SUT, but the Clearaudio was exceptional given its modest price).

Literally should not have sold a single thing in that photo . . . . oh well, lessons learned.

[F575M]

The seller also has a CR ROMULUS 30W/Ch, please see photos. I noticed that he is not using a record player.

[AD Audio]

I am very surprised, the website is dated 2019.

I think I used the phone number from the Website so why don't you try that? There's mobile and landline numbers. It was the Amphion amps I worked on. The original main psu caps didn't like the heavy ripple and exploded so we upgraded them and added a choke to the power supply to help things. Also it was hard to get reliable 6C33 valves and those babies really fry the valve sockets at the temperatures they run at so we installed some pricey teflon and gold jobbies that worked well.

[Opti-cal]

The seller also has a CR ROMULUS 30W/Ch, please see photos. I noticed that he is not using a record player.

Looks like he's just set it up for a demo there with it being on a chair and the mono's likely being used to drive those 63's.

Nice setup though. Certainly one way to avoid any tears in the sock!

I see you have stacked ESL's in your pic there Horacio, are they yours? I feel like I've seen that picture before, maybe someone's listening room? I would imagine the 15w Kalypso could certainly drive a 'normal' pair very nicely, being the same output as a pair of Quad II's. The Kalypso had decent grunt in the low frequencies too. Having said that the Romulus could add some needed watts if it was to be used with the stacked ESL's.

[Opti-cal]

Ah, just re-read that you may be partnering it with Devons.

Like I say, the Calypso has good grunt and did grip anything I paired it with very well. They were very meaty watts albeit only 15 of them.

Some EL84 amps can sound a bit 'light', this is not one of them. The Romulas however, is likely to sound bigger and have even more grip. Not just due to the extra power but I find the 6L6 tube to be a very 'big' sound in most of its implementations. I swapped some Sylvania 6L6's in for some EL34's in a little SET amp and the improvement was significant.

[Barry]

Horatio's avatar shows the Mark Levinson HQD system, a 'vertical' active tri-amplified system, using a speaker arrangement comprising: a 24" Hartley woofer in a 24 cu. ft. enclosure, stacked Quad 57s, with a Decca Kelly ribbon tweeter (horn removed, and positioned between the two Quad speakers).

An aspiration of mine - so far I only have a Mark Levinson 'Q' (:)), and the Quads are single.

[Opti-cal]

Horatio's avatar shows the Mark Levinson HQD system, a 'vertical' active tri-amplified system, using a speaker arrangement comprising: a 24" Hartley woofer in a 24 cu. ft. enclosure, stacked Quad 57s, with a Decca Kelly ribbon tweeter (horn removed, and positioned between the two Quad speakers).

An aspiration of mine - so far I only have a Mark Levinson 'Q' (:)), and the Quads are single.

Ah, thought I'd seen it yes, thanks Barry!

Agreed, certainly a worthy inspirational goal. Bet it sound okay . . .

[F575M]

The Avatar photo of the stacked Quads is from a chap in HK or Japan, take a look at his record collection, amazing. http://www.vintagehificlub.com/quote-elettroniche/mark-levinson/

I had three pairs of Quads, I bought the first pair from Chew & Osborne in Essex in 1980, I sold them and bought some monkey boxes. Not happy with them I bought a second set of Quads also from C&O in 1985. Sold them again a few years later and purchased other box type speakers. Then, four years ago I purchased a damaged pair, had them rebuilt and added a pair of Gradient subs.

Cheers,

Horacio