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

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only changed to go to it's big brother the LS36.5

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Yep, I must admit this one caught me unawares, I normally don't post about commercial kit, coz I can't and wont afford it. But the 36.5 is a bit of a problem, I just repaired one (shipping problem ripping transformer off its base), and having the normal "leave it in the system for the evening" test, started out with a "yep seems to work", turned into "ok, how do I build one of these".

For reference Marco, what was interesting is it did the same thing to my sytem as those interconnects of yours and Ians did, and then a bit more.

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Originally Posted by Togil

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 ...

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Hi Hans,

You should consider yourself to be a very large fish that slipped off the hook. The Duad never existed and you would not have been able to audition one. The Mesmeris were a one-off.... a pair of mono-blocs which were custom made for a far eastern customer (I think some rich guy in Taiwan) and were shipped out for less than half of the price that Amar quoted you (somewhere around eighteen to twenty thousand GBP).

So in fact you were on the hook to be ripped for £20,000.

There are at least four different customers who were ripped off who are now pursuing Amar in court for either lost/stolen equipment or orders which simply did not materialise (yes Amar we have all of the paper work with all of the financial irregularities and account changes). Amar even took orders which he knew he could not fulfil after Glenn had left and attempted to get a third party engineer to build Glenn's designs. That failed but did not prevent Amar from pocketing the money.

Glenn is currently pursuing Amar in the high court in order to settle a myriad of company issues just one of which is disputing the ownership of company assets such as the Om-seti which you mention. Alone this amp is worth around £12,000 it is nowhere to be found, disapeared by Amar along with tens of thousands worth of other company assets.

In the last conversation I had with Amar over a year ago I was told the OM-Seti was worth nothing because Glenn had messed up the design (according to this new engineer who is now world famous...... NOT) but I am sure you would not have been told that if you had come to the UK.

So all in all a lucky escape methinks,

Matt.

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Originally Posted by Marco

The thing is Mike they're focussing on the wrong thing. The dual-mono volume controls are only a small part of the overall amplifier design - they are not responsible for the bulk of its performance!

The fact is Glenn's design ethos is (and always has been) about performance over convenience and if concessions are made in that area they are done reluctantly. Dual-mono pots are more accurate and thus offer better performance - end of. The percentage of improvement is irrelevant; it's the fact that they offer an improvement, no matter how small, that counts. This is why you will never see PCBs in a Croft design - hard-wiring is always the name of the game.

Marco.

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Marco,

Don't worry about the PFM'ers, I am not. They think I am on there scouting for custom. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you are well aware Glenn has all the customers and work that he would ever need.

I am there simply because it is a big forum with a good Google profile and that helps me to establish the new CA site. What kind of web designer would I be if I did not do that? :smoking:

Regards, Matt.

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Originally Posted by matodono1

So all in all a lucky escape methinks,

Matt.

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Fortunately I had already been warned by Len Gregory ( Cartridgeman ) about Amar's nature after Amar claimed his version of the Absolute was no good even though it had been upgraded by Glenn

Hi Matt,

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Don't worry about the PFM'ers, I am not. They think I am on there scouting for custom. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you are well aware Glenn has all the customers and work that he would ever need.

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Yeah, I'm just waiting for you to be asked to pay a £50 trade membership fee ;)

I'm not worrying about them. I just find some of the comments somewhat ridiculous. 'Hen-pecked' comes to mind!

Yep, I know the score. If you hadn't even bothered to come on forums to announce the new range sales alone though dealers and word of mouth would probably be enough to keep Glenn busy for months!

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I am there simply because it is a big forum with a good Google profile and that helps me to establish the new CA site. What kind of web designer would I be if I did not do that?

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Indeed, and what you've done is understandable. It also puts some useful feelers out to gauge public interest. Our Google profile is rising by the day as the forum is getting lots of hits and generating plenty of interest amongst enthusiasts and in the industry. We're very pleased with how things are going so far and hope that you continue to use the site to advertise and promote Croft Acoustics where appropriate.

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Marco

Yeah, I'm just waiting for you to be asked to pay a £50 trade membership fee ;)

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Blimey, that's a bit much isn't it?! What's the justification?

It's per annum, Rob, and therefore I think a bargain given the size of their membership and the potential business opportunities for their registered trade members.

We're nice, though, so even when we have 8000 members we'll still offer our trade members free advertising...perhaps :eyebrows:

Nah, we're not "slurpers" - oops I gave RD a mention :doh:

;)

Marco.

Lets just be clear on this, there is no criticism of PFM here and certainly not of the Admin/mod team, but a few of the posters there - as you'd expect with such a large, busy and successful forum, do make some very strange noises.

I'd prefer not to have dual volume pots but I could live with them if:

a) they were either marked or stepped for easy left-right matching

and

b) the pre sounded bloody good.

I'd prefer to have remote control operation but I live without it already.

I'm very much of the persuasion that convenience is secondary to performance and Tasha understands.

Nick,

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Yep, I must admit this one caught me unawares, I normally don't post about commercial kit, coz I can't and wont afford it. But the 36.5 is a bit of a problem, I just repaired one (shipping problem ripping transformer off its base), and having the normal "leave it in the system for the evening" test, started out with a "yep seems to work", turned into "ok, how do I build one of these".

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That's interesting. I've not heard anything from ModWright but if Andy and you rate it then it must have something going for it. I'm very happy with my Croft pre so I won't be looking at anything else, though :)

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For reference Marco, what was interesting is it did the same thing to my sytem as those interconnects of yours and Ians did, and then a bit more.

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That's a pretty fundamental improvement then, as I thought the Transparents transformed your system, well not quite, but it certainly improved the way music was communicated. It was the type of upgrade that if I heard it in my own system I couldn't live without it.

I will be demonstrating the effect of Transparent cables in more detail at the forthcoming Chesterfest. Oh, and I'll be bringing my KAB-modified SL-1210 along, too, so you might be curious how this compares to your SP10.

Will you be coming? It would be good to meet up again. I'd like to hear that big valve amp of yours again - in fact didn't you say you were bringing it round to Ian's? :smoking:

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Marco

...We're nice, though, so even when we have 8000 members we'll still offer our trade members free advertising...perhaps :eyebrows:..

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That's true. :) Even with 8000 members this place will cost no more to run, with maybe the exception of a bit more traffic space of course, but even so it's hardly a fortune.