Seeking Croft Advice

[DarrenHW]

Hello again everyone,

It's been quite some time since I was last on here. It's good to see a lot of old (figuratively speaking) faces and sad to see how many members are no longer with us, some of whom shared with me invaluable advice, knowledge and guidance I will be eternally grateful for.

When I moved house 5 years ago the Garrard and it's associates were boxed up and remain that way to this day. It's been my intention to have the Garrard up and running for the last 2 Christmas', but life, work and other hobbies have got in the way so as I've never been a fan of rushing things, I need to make a start now to have any chance of being ready for this Christmas!

I have an old Croft Micro "something" (I've never been exactly sure what it is). When it was boxed up there was already some hum from the transformer, my brother borrowed it for a while and there is even more hum. It had been my intention to send this to Glenn for a service, but I just never got round to it. I have tried a few phono stages and the Croft was my favorite by a big margin, so I am sold on a Croft, but my question is which one?

Meandering on to the point of this post, my question is: "What do members this is my best course of action":

• Send my ailing micro off to Deco Audio for repair and service.

• Buy a second hand RIAA and send it to Deco Audio for service.

• Buy a second hand RIAA R and send it to Deco Audio for service.

I will not be using the line stage, so I only require a phonostage.

My preferred option is to buy an RIAA. It's simplicity appeals to me, I'm sure with the right guidance I could learn to service and maintain it myself and I prefer the case design to my existing Micro. However, I can't help but having a massive dose of FOMO over the RIAA R. The R is always were I imagined I be, but now I'm concerned about longevity, the R looks to be a far more complicated beast than the standard RIAA and I have concerns over being able to maintain it myself. I don't intend on buying another TT or phono stage, this will be my system for life and being in my mid 40's I'm asking for decades of use, albeit light. As a population we're loosing a lot of our skilled workers across all industries, my concern is what options will I have to service or repair my Croft in 10, 20, 30 years time?

As I have since I got into this hobby over 10 years ago, I respectfully turn to the memebers of this forum for your advice, knowledge and guidance.

[Jimbo]

Glenns RIAA R is certainly better than any of his other phono stages with lots of regulation on the power supply and 2 toroidal mains transformers. It was the best phono stage he made and far better than any of the phono stages he used in the Preamps including the R and RS.


Glenn once told me he had "more room to work on stuff" in the Riaa and Riaa R which meant he could fully realise all of his potential in a MM phono stage.

[DarrenHW]

That's a pretty strong recommendation for the R!

Thanks James.

[DarrenHW]

How long have you had your 25 James? Has it needed much in the way of servicing?

[Firebottle]

Hi Darren, I can always take a look at it for you.

Mates rates have dwindled to almost zero, I often take a carton of beer..

[Jimbo]

How long have you had your 25 James? Has it needed much in the way of servicing?

I have had it for about 8 years. I did have a couple of caps changed on the volume attenuation circuit as one of them was slightly out of spec when Glenn checked it when Chad it serviced. Other than that I have had nothing else done. I have popped in some fabulous NOS Tesla factory valves in the phono stage but I run the standard JJ Tesla valves in regulation stage.

The separate RIAA phono is different from any of the phono stages Glenn put in his preamps. There is more going on to lower impedance in the RIAA stage.

[Lawrence001]

I assume you have an integrated amplifier if you are looking at the RIAA, and the alternative to keep your micro would be to us it just as a phono stage (which I think I've done using the tape out in the past).

Also who's Chad?

[DarrenHW]

Hi Darren, I can always take a look at it for you.

Mates rates have dwindled to almost zero, I often take a carton of beer..

Hi Alan,

I thought you'd retired from the HiFi market, but I'm happy to be wrong. I'll drop you a PM

[DarrenHW]

@ James - Thanks for the info. I didn't think it would be high maintenance, but always nice to have the reassurance.

@ Lawrence - Thanks, this is how I have been using it.

[Jimbo]

@ James - Thanks for the info. I didn't think it would be high maintenance, but always nice to have the reassurance.

@ Lawrence - Thanks, this is how I have been using it.

I think Darren the beauty with all Croft gear is that it is all point to point hard wired and any reasonable electronics repair person should be able to identify and sort any problems. They are well built and I would say most of the components Glenn used were decent quality. I am hoping to keep mine going for at least another 20-30 years and hope if anything does fail it should be easily sorted.

Alan ( Firebottle) knows Croft gear well and should you have any problems I would take him up on his offer to repair as he is a fantastic electronics engineer and Croft gear is straight forward to sort I am sure with his experience.