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Croft Micro 25R line preamp

thomasp

pfm Member
Good day,
I have a 2 part question regarding the subject equipment :
1. Sound quality. This is a blind purchase.
2. Am I crazy to order tube equipment by mail .. shipping damage issues .. I am thinking of ordering it from Audio Affair, UK and I am in Canada.
 
Unfortunately, the hardware varies, sometimes, quite a bit, within any one model - 25R means not much in other words.

I like my Croft pre - I actually have 2 - and have no intention whatsoever in looking for another pre.

Just ask the shipper to remove the valves and wrap seperately to the box.

In my experience, Croft pre designs/circuits are almost totally immune to valve changes/rolling, and I have tried MANY in mine.
 
Never had any reliability, variability, quality problems etc with a single Croft amp going back some 40 years. The most reliable equipment I have ever sold.

I have just about every Croft amp in stock, all unused and some still sealed in their packaging. In the past I have sent many units to the US and Canada
 
I sold a Croft Micro to far away, double boxed it, the buyer didn't want insurance. It arrived faulty. No blame on me from the buyer, but the involved carriers didn't care. They offered to refund the postage.
 
I sold a Croft Micro to far away, double boxed it, the buyer didn't want insurance. It arrived faulty. No blame on me from the buyer, but the involved carriers didn't care. They offered to refund the postage.

The internal wiring is bombproof - just point-to-point via tag strips.
Failure was very highly likely to have been a valve gone down if they were shipped, plugged-in. Just remove them, wrap and pack within the case of the amp - not guaranteed, but far more robust than shipping as is.
 
I trust you've seen the Micro 25RSLS on CAM? It's been up for a month and the asking price has been climbing as of late so....

I shipped my Micro 25 and Power 7 across the country to Quebec with no issues. The factory boxes were placed in a larger oversized box for the journey to minimize the chance for drama. The Croft factory packaging is very good but would still insist on the seller double boxing. As highlighted by others, an experienced seller will remove the tubes and properly package them for the journey as well. I've had very good luck with Canada Post (touch wood) but YMMV.

I'm of the opinion that everyone should own a Croft piece at some point in their audio journey and just might be your final destination. Good luck!
 
Sound quality is excellent, I've had both the 25R line and phono and loved them both, if you have a turntable the inbuilt phono stage is worth the extra. In my view one of the best value preamps you can buy. Only one thing to consider is system matching, the gain from the preamp is quite high and it has output impedance of I think around 2KOhms, so you will want your power amp to have a reasonably high input impedance and not be overly sensitive. If the input sensitivity on the power amp is high you won't get much travel on the volume pots before it gets loud. What amp are you thinking of using?
 
I am grad you ask, Bish, you beat me to it. My power amp has 22K input impedance and input sensitivity of 1.5 V which I can also change through the feedback resistor. So will it work?
 
I am grad you ask, Bish, you beat me to it. My power amp has 22K input impedance and input sensitivity of 1.5 V which I can also change through the feedback resistor. So will it work?

I've had mine into a modified quad 306 with very similar specs so in my view that would be fine. if you have very sensitive speakers it's likely it won't be completely silent if you have your ear right up to the tweeter but it will sound good.
 


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