You’re welcome to try it here mate if that might help
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Location: nottingham
Posts: 328
I'm nigel.
Is your WiFi modem positioned anywhere near your amps perchance?
Tubes are remarkably sensitive to WiFi emmisions.....a tube preamp I ran recently was placed near my modem and picked up all sorts of nasties.
I did think that so turned the router off - no discernible difference.
It’s about 10ft away from the amps & around 2ft from one of the speakers.
Had a play around yesterday with everything again & still the hum - worse on the Phono stage which tends to go up & down when I increase / decrease volume.
Today I’m going to clean all the valve seats etc with contact cleaner & reposition them - see if that helps.
Also will try different lengths / types of speaker cable & interconnects however I fear it won’t have much impact.
Thinking down the route of going back to my Integrated as this was more or less silent through my speakers.
Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex
Posts: 7,090
I'm Dave.
I already suggested the other day that Russ get it checked over and I'll cover any repair. The original manufacturer is back in business and not that far from him. https://www.vintagevalveandvinyl.co.uk/about-us/
It has been behaving fine for me this past year or so right up till I stopped using it a few weeks ago when the Croft went to Jake, but it does seem that there's some kind of issue appeared on the phono stage. I doubt it can be anything too serious.
OK, after lots of fettling & cleaning etc. I think I can safely say it is the pre at fault.
I've taken both pre & power apart & cleaned all valves, pots etc. with contact cleaner.
Put it back together & powered up - hum still there, louder on the Phono input, increases with volume (& speakers flap).
Used my Croft integrated paired to WML speakers - a lot quieter, hardly any background noise at all. This doesn't have a phono input however I used my Schiit Mani to hook up the TT. This is sligthtly noisier than a regular input but I would expect that with the extra gain. Still not as loud as the Gate pre.
I then used a SS Power Amp I have (Cymbol CPA3) & used the Gate as the Pre - background hum is there again, louder on phono stage.
Used the Cymbol as the Power with my X40 streamer as the pre - virtually silent with no source playing, even whacking the volume up.
Last permutation is using the Gate as a Phono Stage only, coming out of the tape outs into the input on the X40 & using that as the pre. Noise is back which increases with volume, using the Croft Valve & Cymbol SS Power Amps.
This makes me think it is the Pre which is loud, particularly on the phono stage, however what I still can't understand is why my Croft Integrated (active pre & power sections) is still quieter than the Croft 5C Power Amp - I guess it's different gain 7 the way it's set up?
Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex
Posts: 7,090
I'm Dave.
Hallelujah, see post 15.
The Croft 5C is all valve and now old. The Croft Integrated is hybrid and very quiet.