Marco your answer RE: Croft and Eminent Audio

[matodono1]

Hi Marco,

My name is Matt O'Donoghue I was one of the main web designers for EA from 2003 till 2006. I have known Glenn and Amar personally for over ten years and have worked with both on the marketing side since 2002.

Yes it is true that Glenn Croft and Amar Bizwas parted company since around June 2006. Glenn no longer manufactures Croft amplifiers for Eminent Audio and is forming his own new company. Amar attempted to continue manufacture on his own employing the service of a third party engineer but we have heard of no real production ocurring as a result.

I do know that up until a few weeks ago most of EA's distributors were unaware of the true nature of the split and of Glenn's current status with regard to EA. I can tell you that Glenn is currently in legal dispute with Amar over co-ownership of EA and fair distribution of EA's assets for which Amar now holds full control.

If any members are offered EA products for sale by Amar they should bear in mind that ownership of those products is subject to legal dispute in the High Court.

As for me, my loyalties are for Glenn who I am assisting to set up his new company "Croft Accoustics", Glenn is well and looking forward to a new and positive future free of the influence of Mr Biswas. His new website is at http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk where he can be contacted directly for all servicing and repairs of valve amplification (including Croft obviously). A new small range of products to be annouced in due course as soon as Glenn can get back into production.

I hope that this helps to clarify matters.

Regards, Matt.

[WikiBoy]

Hi Marco,

My name is Matt O'Donoghue I was one of the main web designers for EA from 2003 till 2006. I have known Glenn and Amar personally for over ten years and have worked with both on the marketing side since 2002.

Yes it is true that Glenn Croft and Amar Bizwas parted company since around June 2006. Glenn no longer manufactures Croft amplifiers for Eminent Audio and is forming his own new company. Amar attempted to continue manufacture on his own employing the service of a third party engineer but we have heard of no real production ocurring as a result.

I do know that up until a few weeks ago most of EA's distributors were unaware of the true nature of the split and of Glenn's current status with regard to EA. I can tell you that Glenn is currently in legal dispute with Amar over co-ownership of EA and fair distribution of EA's assets for which Amar now holds full control.

If any members are offered EA products for sale by Amar they should bear in mind that ownership of those products is subject to legal dispute in the High Court.

As for me, my loyalties are for Glenn who I am assisting to set up his new company "Croft Accoustics", Glenn is well and looking forward to a new and positive future free of the influence of Mr Biswas. His new website is at http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk where he can be contacted directly for all servicing and repairs of valve amplification (including Croft obviously). A new small range of products to be annouced in due course as soon as Glenn can get back into production.

I hope that this helps to clarify matters.

Regards, Matt.

Yeah!! go for it Glenn - strike a blow of freedom for the techie. Now if a certain Hamish had had the personal balls to do this, instead of taking an easier way out, then the UK hi-Fi industry might even now look a completely different place.

Waddya think Guy

[Marco]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the forum

And thank you very much for the information about Croft. This is very interesting as I had no idea that the two had parted company since 2006! I was under the impression that this had only happened recently. It would certainly explain though why Amar wasn't returning my calls...

I must admit he always did come across as a bit 'dodgy', although he was always unfailingly pleasant.

I will contact Glenn directly through the website details you posted, as there are a number of things I would like to ask him. I certainly hope that his new venture goes well. He makes fabulous products!

Marco.

[matodono1]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the forum

And thank you very much for the information about Croft. This is very interesting as I had no idea that the two had parted company since 2006! I was under the impression that this had only happened recently. It would certainly explain though why Amar wasn't returning my calls...

I must admit he always did come across as a bit 'dodgy', although he was always unfailingly pleasant.

I will contact Glenn directly through the website details you posted, as there are a number of things I would like to ask him. I certainly hope that his new venture goes well. He makes fabulous products!

Marco.

Hi Marco,

I am glad to be the one who represents Glenn's side of the matter. And yes contact him directly, I am sure he will welcome your support. Thanks for your reply and welcome to this Forum.

Best, Matt.

[Marco]

No problem, Matt. Nice to have you here

Glenn is one of the old school highly respected British audio designers I admire greatly. I own a Charisma X preamp, which is superb and has one of the best all-valve phono stages I have ever heard.

Tell us about your own system, and if you have any pictures pop them in the Gallery.

Marco.

[matodono1]

No problem, Matt. Nice to have you here

Glenn is one of the old school highly respected British audio designers I admire greatly. I own a Charisma X preamp, which is superb and has one of the best all-valve phono stages I have ever heard.

Tell us about your own system, and if you have any pictures pop them in the Gallery.

Marco.

Hi Marco,

My system is obviously Croft!

Namely a Croft Epoch SE pre, Croft Twinstar II SE power, Bluenote Kaola CD (valve output) Spendor SP1 speakers rewired with tweaked crossovers, I also sometimes setup with my Quad ELS 63's. I am also a friend of Arthur K (pink, Funk etc) so I run one of his Funk tt's with a Bluenote U3 unipivot and Grado Silver cart.

Cables are Townhend Isolda speaker cable with a mixture of Chord Sig, Siltech STA G3 and Funks own "Wraith" interconnects. I use power chords of my own design. my site is http://www.mats-enterprise.co.uk for details of my various audio projects and system pictures.

The site is grossly out of date, being a web designer I never actually work on my own site but it will give you an idea about what I get up to.

Regards, Matt.

[matodono1]

Yeah!! go for it Glenn - strike a blow of freedom for the techie. Now if a certain Hamish had had the personal balls to do this, instead of taking an easier way out, then the UK hi-Fi industry might even now look a completely different place.

Waddya think Guy

Hi Richard,

Thanks, I am sure that Glenn will appreciate that note of support. The whole situation is very unfortunate, especially when the trust and genuine good nature of an individual such as Glenn Croft is abused in such a manner.

None of this quite matches the tragedy which befell Hamish Robertson but needless to say there are certain individuals within the British hifi industry who will have to look at themselves in the mirror and find some pretty funky excuses with which to justify their conduct.

I for one am glad that I don't have to live with that particular brand of lie on my conscience.

Regards, Matt.

[Steve Toy]

I live near Birmingham (20 miles North) so next time Marco comes here we could pop down. I'm looking at a modded Puresound A30 valve amp. Guy Sergeant supplies it, Anthony Matthews modifies it and I love it. That's the plan anyway!

[matodono1]

I live near Birmingham (20 miles North) so next time Marco comes here we could pop down. I'm looking at a modded Puresound A30 valve amp. Guy Sergeant supplies it, Anthony Matthews modifies it and I love it. That's the plan anyway!

Hi Steve,

Why wait? I work from home and am around most weekdays. Pop by if you want to hear something a bit different. Bring some kit and a few Albums.

I am contactable via my site http://mats-enterprise.co.uk/web .

Regards, Matt.

[DSJR]

Now Marco, regarding remarks on the best Sony CD player EVER thread... and regarding comments you've made above, I wish to gently remind you (being an SL1210 owner and all) that the best things most often come in smaller leaner packages...

You want Glenn to show us what he can REALLY do? Well, he will, with this new range!

Any half decent electronics engineer can make a superb product with enough money to throw at it (and I doubt Sony were short of a penny or two when your CD player was designed and produced). What Glenn's doing (and did on the early stuff) was to make a giant killer using the best components he could find whilst keeping it simple. Careful choice of component tolerances (easy now 1% or better resistors are ten a penny) and using valves well up to the job can make a superb product for not much dosh. OK the outside won't be of Sony "ES" quality and we're going to have TWO volume controls again (GGGRRR!!! ), but I bet it'll make your over engineered CD player sound better than ever (and mine too possibly.....). The phono stage should be good too and a great UK made upgrade for Cambridge 640 owners (apologies to NVA, I don't know your products).

Regarding selling to dealers or eBay, Glenn's products have ALWAYS fetched great prices on eBay and I suspect it's us that know, posting on sites like this one, that have kept these prices up, as the great unwashed out there won't know what a Croft product is and may not even care - I can't even state Ken Kessler's helped here as few people buy HiFi Snooze these days.. Dealers on the whole are desperate yet ignorant, pompous a*seh*l*s by and large and either want indefinite loan stock to try to sell from, or will try to shaft the small guy as they themselves are shafted by the big ones.... - if it takes one to know one then I ashamedly hold up my hand, although I hope I improved with age and maturity/knowledge...

If Glenn has a small number of friends who happen to be dealers (and I know one very well indeed) then hopefully they'll do a great job in spreading the word and keeping his product "clean." If he made up some high current mains filters as he used to, or decent, not too expensive interconnects or something, he could possibly sell these on ebay, but I doubt he'd have the inclination to do so, or the time to be honest.....