Glenn Croft is building amplifiers again! CroftAcoustics.co.uk

Rob,

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When I owned a Super Micro SMA I fitted finely calibrated, skirted knobs in place of the awful originals and drilled the front panel to take a tiny pin-head red LEDs as markers. It helped with channel matching... a bit.

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Interesting. I think that would have been a pretty good solution. Mind you, the quality of knobs and pots have moved on a bit since those days and I'll think you'll find the ones Glenn's likely to be using on his new stuff will be more positive in feel and accurate in use, although certainly not 'fancy' in style.

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Down with twin knobs!

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LOL. I don't get what all the 'hoo-hah' is about twin knobs. Ok, I do (in a way), but it's not the end of the world once you get used to it, and it definitely gives better stereo, particularly at lower volumes.

We are after all supposed to be 'audiophiles' (I've never been comfortable with that word, though) always striving to go the extra mile for the best sound. Jeez, people will adjust VTA for individual records played on their T/Ts, fiddle with loading and impedance values on phono stages, and all manner of shit to ensure the best reproduction is obtained before listening, so I don't see the big deal in adopting similar logic with preamp volume controls in a design that's all about achieving the absolute best sound quality and highest sound-per-pound value.

And I can honestly tell you, having discussed this issue with Glenn (and I'm sure Matt will back me up here) that there is more chance of the Pope becoming a Protestant than Glenn giving up on dual-mono volume pots. The 'faithful' can bleat all they like! Just see it as the artistic quirk of an old master ;)

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If I can find a photo of the old SMA I'll post it.

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Please do. I'd like to see it.

Marco.

Steve,

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No twin knobs please but I'm genuinely interested in a valve pre that will see off my solid state Spectral DMC-15. I tried a Glasshouse TVC passive and whilst it was more organic it was rather shut-in both spatially and dynamically compared to the Spectral. It was also less dynamic to the point of a slight shoutiness even if this was without any real hardness as such.

I'm looking for the dynamics, timing and soundstaging of the Spectral with perhaps more natural sounding vocals. The Spectral is very, very good indeed and is probably worth around £2000 on the s/h market. It was £4700 new back in 2001. The latest version of it is £4800.

Basically 2k is my top-line budget for a pre.

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Did you get my message? Sorry I can't make it today and carry out the various comparisons of kit we had intended doing. Business calls, but if you're free we will definitely do it in a couple of weeks :)

You must get to hear the Croft now it has been modified - it really is quite special. I'm sure Glenn could build you a superb preamp for £2k or less, such as what's represented in his new range, which I'm sure is as good or very close to what I'm using now.

I think good quality transformer-based passive preamps have something to offer, and in many cases are better than active designs, even some very expensive ones, but when you get a top-notch valve pre that ticks all the right boxes, such as the Croft, it's a different ball game entirely.

We've already concluded after much listening that valve power amps (or converted integrateds) are the way to go in terms of reproducing music faithfully with the colour and emotive impact evident in real voices and instruments, therefore it makes sense to adopt the same approach and methodology with preamps. No design is perfect of course - it's all about choosing your compromises - but in my experience well designed valve preamps, musically, get far more right than they do wrong.

Marco.

Hi Matt,

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Thanks, looking forward to hearing more about your upgraded Charisma X I heard that it is a bit special now.

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Jeez, and how! You and I both know that Glenn isn't a man of many words (at least when he's sober ;)) but he said enough at my place to suggest that he was satisfied with the results. All in all, it's so far the biggest improvement I've had with any upgrades I've done (so cost effective too) and that's saying something considering the shenanigans I get up to on the hi-fi front! :lol:

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My Epoch will be going away at some point to get similar treatment when all the new stuff is developed.

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Nice one. Trust me, you've got some fun to look forward to, although I have to say that your Epoch sounded bloody good the last time I was down.

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The PFM'ers...... I know. They have been bustin my chops all day. Gotta love them yanks, quite frankly there are more importants things to worry about than dual mono, so there will be no sleep lost there.

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LOL. I understand the concerns but like I said before it's not a hill of beans considering the lengths some folk go to with tweakery and set-up procedures - and it's all well documented on PFM threads and elsewhere! I agree, I think the Yanks have a very healthy, friendly (less competitive) attitude to hi-fi compared to Brits. Posting on various US audio sites confirms this.

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Prototypes

I really only had access to them for an hour myself and they are likely to be doing the rounds amongst industry bods for some time to come so can't really make any promises. Glenn is flat out on upgrades and mods at the moment and then its back up north for the Cricket in a week or so.

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No worries. Glenn said he'd keep me in the loop so no doubt I'll hear from him in due course or all of us might meet up for a curry in Brum some point before then :smoking:

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The curry was nice thanks and it was Glenn's turn to pay so all in all a good night.

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Haha... Was the rice up to his Lordship's standards?

Right, off to do some work for a change! Much later, chaps...

Marco.

Just great to hear Glen is making amps again I will look into the level 2 pre when it comes out

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Originally Posted by matodono1

Hi Togil,

If you ever see the little man be sure to pass on my regards,

Matt.

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Actually I met him in Munich at the 2007 show.
He sent me a UK price list, where the Duad was £ 39,000
It was an OTL with 16x 6336

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Originally Posted by Togil

Actually I met him in Munich at the 2007 show.
He sent me a UK price list, where the Duad was £ 39,000
It was an OTL with 16x 6336

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As I say Hans,

The Duad was never more than an imaginary amplifier printed on a price list conceived by a very greedy individual. Amar never even asked Glenn whether or not it was possible to create an OTL with 16 x 6336's.

Besides that Amar knew far better, the best amongst his many amplifiers was a pair of Cypher (or maybe Aparitions) OTL mono-blocs which had two 6336's per channel and that would have been more than sublime enough to satisfy 99% of the audiophiles in the world.

The Duad would have been nothing more than an extravagance. Overhyped overspecified and overpriced by Amar in order to line his own pockets.

regards, Matt.

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Originally Posted by matodono1

The Duad would have been nothing more than an extravagance. Overhyped overspecified and overpriced by Amar in order to line his own pockets.

regards, Matt.

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One wonders what would have happened if some wealthy German client had placed an order for this non existent 'myth'!!! :scratch:

Amar recommended 3 amplifiers for my Quad ESLs : the Duad, the Omseti and the Mesmeris (also £ 39,000 ?) He said the Mesmeris had just been specially made. To be fair he didn't try to persuade me to order without first coming to visit him in the Midlands ...

Yes, Hans, and when you went to visit him in the Midlands he would have spun you some yarn about none of the amplifiers he mentioned being available or they would have been 'out of stock'. He would have tried to sell you something else - probably some bodged design of his own. One thing's for certain: nothing he'd have sold you at the prices quoted would have been anything to do with Glenn.

My advice to you would be to steer clear if Mr Biswas should ever contact you again.

Marco.

I've just looked again at the thread on PFM and can't believe the misguided and pathetic negative reaction to dual-mono volume controls...

{Shakes head in disbelief}

Buy the wife a bloody midi system for the kitchen to play her music on and stop yer whining! ;)

Marco.