I think I killed my brand new Croft Series 7 :(

[southall-1998_mk2]

I'd never waste my money on anything built by Glenn Croft.

S.

[hifi_dave]

Dave, I wrote the message above before seeing yours. I’m not against Croft in any way.

One of the reasons I have sold Croft for almost 40 years is that it is very reliable. No sense in stocking gear that's always going wrong and I could give names of brands which are like that.

[hifi_dave]

I'd never waste my money on anything built by Glenn Croft.

S.

And how many Croft items have you heard or owned ?

[southall-1998_mk2]

And how many Croft items have you heard or owned ?

For your information, many! Always sounded 'meh' to my ears.

S.

[Jimbo]

An ex dealer, who did Croft, kept demo units of the full range and had significant reliability issues with his demo stock, I think by the end of his doing them he had about 45% reliability issues, pre, powers, phono stage. In my view this is way too high.

Way too hair shirt and I agree that putting safety features in place sensible, leaving them out way too risky.

Of course Croft have their worshippers, followers and Glenn can do no wrong people, and I am not saying they don’t sound good, but such a high failure rate among demo stock, isn’t good and the op should not be having this experience and in all my use of valve gear I have never had such problems, but I don’t own Croft, and nor would I.

Yes sources first, phono, pre then power switch on and that in reverse is the way things should be done, but having to do this as an absolute because gear is that fragile, really isn’t great.

45% - Really??

[DSJR]

For your information, many! Always sounded 'meh' to my ears.

S.

If a Croft sounds 'Meh' then it's either tired valves or a very badly matched system in my experience. Apart from some of the slightly softer toned original 80's stuff (Series 4 power amps usually) which still let the music details through, I don't remember any of his products sounding 'meh' and *certainly not* the current models, which sound quite lively to me, even into older Harbeths............

To the OP, if Glenn can fit a delay or soft-start feature into the phono stage with no sonic penalty, I'd recommend suggesting he fits it as routine in production, as who knows who's going to own the stuff in the future and not everyone knows what to do in terms of using the stuff.

[Spectral Morn]

This is getting way out of hand. I have been selling Croft products since the early 80s and it has always been amongst the most reliable equipment I have stocked. This latest 25 + 7 range has been with me for approx 12 years and in all that time I haven't had a single fault apart from a couple of fuses and a noisy valve. That's pretty good going and I do sell a lot.

What has happened is that the OP has switched on the three items in the wrong order and in doing so you would expect problems as you might with any system. Always switch on source first, then pre and then power. If the pre and power are working and then the RIAA source is switched on, the noises generated can cause a problem, in this case just a blown fuse. Replace that and job done.

I am relaying true information and not making things up. The phono stage even came faulty out of the box, I was there, it was a simple fault but it was faulty. One item fine Glenn distracted and made a mistake, but a number of items, nope poor.

I get it your sell his stuff and others worship his gear, but what I have said is true and can be proved. So no libel or defamation only cold facts.

[Spectral Morn]

45% - Really??

Yes.

Series 7 pre, two stereo power, and a phono stage, out of the demo stock. I said to the dealer he should send the whole lot back, but he took another path. I felt crap about this as when he had been looking for brands I mentioned Croft as one to look at. He was ok about it, I felt very embarrassed.

[Jimbo]

I am relaying true information and not making things up. The phono stage even came faulty out of the box, I was there, it was a simple fault but it was faulty. One item fine Glenn distracted and made a mistake, but a number of items, nope poor.

I get it your sell his stuff and others worship his gear, but what I have said is true and can be proved. So no libel or defamation only cold facts.

Lets hear the proof then from this dealer rather than hearsay from you.

[Spectral Morn]

Dave, I wrote the message above before seeing yours. I’m not against Croft in any way.

I am not either, but what happened to you should not have and Glenn knowing it could have is crazy.