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

[beadlesabout]

Thanks everyone.

I tested the fuses on the 7 and they are indeed blown. According to Glenn it will be fine when they’re replaced.

He says I should give the RIAA a 30 second head start. In my opinion that means it should have a relay circuit like the 25 does. He says he can fit one so I’ll look into that.

This isn’t a HiFi system I want my friends and family to be scared of breaking so some added protection will help.

[Lawrence001]

Rule of thumb with all equipment, switch on source first to power amp last. Usually not an issue with solid state but often is with valves due mainly to the DC issue highlighted above.

TBH it really surprises me when hifi mates don't do it, or ask me which order to do it in. It's the first thing you need to know.

[Made in 1968]

..

[Haselsh1]

This a typical Example of omitting things in a design that should be there anyway. which basically leads to unreliability as you have encountered for the sake of what? Switching things on in order to avoid such things happening is stupid imho.

I once came to blows with someone over an Onix amplifier i had because it had Relays in the circuit.. it was, according to him a piece of shit..

[Jimbo]

Rule of thumb with all equipment, switch on source first to power amp last. Usually not an issue with solid state but often is with valves due mainly to the DC issue highlighted above.

TBH it really surprises me when hifi mates don't do it, or ask me which order to do it in. It's the first thing you need to know.

Just to add, switch off power amp first, then preamp.

[Spectral Morn]

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.

[dowser]

My mid/late 80s Croft Micro II was serviced by Glenn when I bought it in 2007, was subsequently modified by me and has been in continuous service since with zero problems. If they were unreliable you would see far more faulty ones than you do for sale, and resale price would be much lower!

Who is the ex dealer?

[hifi_dave]

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.

[beadlesabout]

In fairness to Croft, I’m not sure this is a reliability issue as Glenn expected it to happen. There’s no permanent damage and it will be fine once the fuses are replaced. It’s just not very user friendly and I’ll fix that by arranging for a relay to be fitted to the RIAA.

I’ve never heard of reliability issues with recent Croft stuff and the fact the same models have been in production for years means he’s had plenty of practice.

[beadlesabout]

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