Croft specs - too much gain?

[southall-1998_mk2]

I'm no electronics expert. But I sincerely find Croft gear a bit overpriced. Let alone secondhand prices. Sound wise is 'meh' to my ears. Each to their own.

S.

[Wegamus]

I'm no electronics expert. But I sincerely find Croft gear a bit overpriced. Let alone secondhand prices. Sound wise is 'meh' to my ears. Each to their own.

S.

Well that’s not really relevant to the thread, but I do really like the Croft sound and I’ve not seen any valve preamps at a similar price and consider them a bargain. I played an Analogue Productions 45rpm Ben Webster LP yesterday and it was incredible, absolutely sublime, so each to their own indeed. If you find Croft overpriced, I’d be very interested to know what you consider to be good value for money.

[southall-1998_mk2]

Well that’s not really relevant to the thread, but I do really like the Croft sound and I’ve not seen any valve preamps at a similar price and consider them a bargain. I played an Analogue Productions 45rpm Ben Webster LP yesterday and it was incredible, absolutely sublime, so each to their own indeed. If you find Croft overpriced, I’d be very interested to know what you consider to be good value for money.

Sorry about that, Greg. Just slipped out! Not wishing to troll your thread. The most important thing is that you are happy. Sod what others say, including me!

S.

[Wegamus]

Sorry about that, Greg. Just slipped out! Not wishing to troll your thread. The most important thing is that you are happy. Sod what others say, including me!

S.

No worries, was interested in your ideas of what stuff is good value though.

[Frazeur1]

The hiss factor, regardless of the actual volume pot positions seems wrong to me. I only have the standard Micro 25/Series 7, and with my Duevel Venus at 88/89 dB sensitivity(and I realize that number isn’t the only part of the equation), my pots are in a similar position, maybe a touch higher, at an average of 70 or so dB loudness in a 14 x 11.5 room. I have so very little to no hiss from speakers at near full bore with no music playing.

I did swap the ECC83 valve in the Series 7 for an ECC82, and this did lower the gain a slight smidge, maybe in my case of going from say one o’clock to two o’clock on the pot settings. I did that swap months ago as it was talked about on another forum and curiosity got the best of me, knowing really that the gain resistors really need changed to get things “fixed”, which I will do in time.

Try Glenn’s advice and go from there. Needless to say, I really like the Croft gear, but nothing is ever totally perfect, but he will get you sorted, don’t get discouraged!

[hifi_dave]

There is something faulty here and Croft will sort it out. The Crofts are amongst the quietest amps I have ever stocked - virtually no hum or hiss at all. Was this set bought s/hand ?

As I said, I sell Croft each week and have done since the early 80s and one of the reasons I took it on in the first place, was that the noise from the likes of Audio research, Conrad Johnson, Counterpoint etc, etc were getting me down. The Croft units were silent and even when thumped didn't play up, unlike the others.

[eksiil]

for what it's worth, I don't think I've ever had a Croft amp hiss (unless there was a faulty valve somewhere). they are remarkably quiet, even compared to SS designs (which can hum). I've had limited usable volume knob travel in some combinations, but even with modern DACs I can usually comfortably get to the 3 o'clock notch. & in my experience that was never correlated to any form of hiss. so my vote goes to the people saying there must be a fault in the signal path.

[Audio Al]

I'm no electronics expert. But I sincerely find Croft gear a bit overpriced. Let alone secondhand prices. Sound wise is 'meh' to my ears. Each to their own.

S.

It's what I call thread crapping

[southall-1998_mk2]

It's what I call thread crapping

I couldn't care less.

S.

[Audio Al]

I couldn't care less.

S.

You did not need to explain as it was obvious