JimBlog

I think my first HiFi experience started in 1977 when I purchased a Prinzsound SA 1001 amplifier off a friends dad who was upgrading. This amplifier was a Dixons own brand I believe and came in a wood sleeve and black front plate. Very cool I thought at the time. However I had no speakers or turntable to go with it so I bought some Scandyna A25 bookshelf speakers and a Thorens TD160 turntable and an Ortofon cartridge.

Sorry no photos from this era as Instagram, forums, the Internet or computers had not made this necessary at the time

I soon added a JVC KD-10 cassette deck and I was in action. The speakers were crap so they were sold and I had a pair of B&W DM10s. These sounded superb and could be driven hard as I was into Rock music at the time when all the great stuff was being written. My LP collection increased every week usually bought from Our Price, HMV or occasionally Woolworths bargain bin if i was feeling a bit poor and needed a vinyl fix!

This system lasted until about 1982 with little change. The turnable was never set up properly as we all do today. I had never heard of VTA,VTF, Azimuth or bothered with stylus cleaning or record care. Just blew the dust off or if I spilt beer on anything it was wiped off with a wet cloth. Records were scratched regularly (Pissed again) and y stylus never lasted too long either and dug deep into those grooves but probably not intentionally!

By 1982 I had a pile of HFN and Record reviews magazines that almost touched the bedroom ceiling and I had worked in a local HIFI shop called Downing and Downing which sold hi end stuff, Quad, B&O and Technics. They had a workshop at the back and could fix almost anything as was the case then when PCBs and micro electronics had not taken over too much. I soon moved onto Quad gear myself and had the 405 Mk2 and Quad 33 preamp. Nice kit and a way better sound than by Prinzsound amp. I eventually moved onto the 606 for a bit more power and control.

I did not last long selling HIFI as I preferred to listen to it rather than sell it so I got a computer job on the hardware side and started to earn lots of dosh. It was also coincidentally that I found a HIFI retailer called Warstones HIFI in a back street of Wolverhampton. This place ignited me as an audiophile and was the Nirvana of all things HIFI. It was run by an enthusiastic proprietor called Don Swain who was a great character who bought together a fantastic group of people who would drop in and swap their knowledge and experience.

Those years from 1982 - 1990 were spent in and out of this establishment where I heard gear and systems that I feel have never been bettered today. He sold Spender, Harbeth,Linn and many more brands and encouraged start up entrepreneurs like Glenn Croft. The systems we strapped together there with massive OTL mono blocks etc and absolutely fettled Garrard 301  turntables were fantastic sounding. It was a blur of gear and I believe we actually got through listening to more  stuff than Oliver!

Glenn was an inspirational presence although very quietly spoken. He would suggest using this or that having spent a lot of time evaluating speakers and taking apart many amps himself. He was a self taught genius and it was not long before i bought his original Croft micro and a Croft modified Leak Stereo 20. The B&W DM 10 remained but I had my eye on some Harbeths HL5s. They sounded very nice indeed but eventually I bought the Spender SP2 as they could rock a little more even though they were quite polite.

Speaker cables and ICs were just wire then but QED 79 strand did make it into the system. Many many Fridays and Saturdays were spent at Warstones Hifi listening to gear and music and much i learned about Audio happened here. It was the best school for audiophiles I could ever imagine and it relieved my wallet continuously of large amounts of cash. However by 1990 i had bought a house and the cash dried up. CD had made it into my life with the crap broken glass sounding Philips 101 CD player. I used this with a QED passive control unit into my Quad 606 and then SP2 speakers. I had gone through loads of fantastic gear including bigger and better Croft preamps (Super micro) and used a Garrard 301 with a Decca blue and a number of other cartridges but I was lured into the promise of perfect sound forever and CD destroyed my LP collection which was sold and given away. I still mourn its loss now!


The CD players were swapped to try and and remove the broken glass sound but really I was kidding myself, it was just different types of glass! Eventually the CD ended with a Denon 965BX which was OK. However I lost interest in music as digital robbed the soul and life from music then and the CD player got kicked under the sofa. The speakers were hidden in the corners of the room and the amp hidden behind a chair.

In 2005 The music stopped and so did my HIFi interest.

TBC 

Excellent start there James, what a lucky lad to have Warstones and Glenn Croft as mentors at that time.

In 2010 my partner Helen said "why don't we listen to music anymore". I pondered this and realised that since 2005 we had only occasionally set my system up to listen to music and that was usually because I was assessing another Croft amp. One in particular sounded wonderful this being the Dakshini OTL power amp. I unplugged my Quad 606 and popped in or should I say heaved in the slab of OTL and used my QED passive and Rotel CD player. There was a beautiful liquid rendition to the sound which captivated us for a while and got me thinking!

The only pic I could find of this Croft Power amp are included on this article.

www.6moons.com/audioreviews/croft/croft.html

There are many other Croft designs on there, many of which made it too my house and some stage or other but I never bought any of them. I appreciated their superb craftsmanship and sound and it got me thinking of way back when I was young and back at Warstones hifi in 1982 and the excitement of that time and the superb sounding systems that emanated from that small dealer above the pet shop.

Right thats it, I had decided I would kick the hifi back into touch after lying fallow for 10 years and buy a Croft amplifier again and build my system around this. Croft designs had evolved over those 30 years and now included hybrid designs using MOSFETs in the power amps and a valve input but the preamps were all valve. I contacted my friend Adrian in London who sold Croft gear and made plans for a visit. He lived in North London and so it would mean a big day out listening to gear and a bit of lunch. On a cold February day in 2015 I made my way down and Adrian, who was an old school friend and charming host, welcomed me to his house. After a few pleasantries and good Italian coffee we wen upstairs to his Aladins cave of gear. He also sold Gold note and all sorts of exotic stuff and he certainly new how to put together a good system. i had only taken my SP2 speakers as reference point. He was a big fan of them and new they would work well with what he had in mind.

We spent the day with a simple set up of a £10,000 Gold Note Cd player and a range of Croft amps including the 25 /25R / 25RS / Series 7 and Series 7R. We got some good sounds out of the set ups we put together and most of the day listened to CD and i made my decision to buy the 25R preamp and Series 7 Power amp but just before we wrapped up the session i asked Adrian if he could pop some vinyl on as I had not heard any for 25 Years and wondered  what it still sounded like...........

Hold on this was not meant to happen!!!! What the hell was going on. What had I been listening too for 25 years. Why did CD not sound like this???

I was not just stunned, I was poleaxed !!! VINYL sounded awesome, it sounded so right, the emotion came back and the quality of audio I had missed was there in front of me.

I left Adrian house with my mind racing and I was perplexed! How could I have missed this and not remembered how good Vinyl was. I was planning to base my new system around CD or some digital format but those last few hours listening to Vinyl ripped up the plan. I had to get a turntable, I had to buy some vinyl. The fuse had been lit but i could never have imagined where it would take me!

TBC

Excellent read James . My experience has been similar to yours , although I've ' walked ' away a couple of times after basically giving all my vinyl away when I decided to embrace CD . 
I've never really got back to into vinyl , although I have a nice GL75 up in the loft . I'm afraid hearing loss may force me into headphones use full time .

How can you walk away from music, and for years on end?
It makes no sense to me at all.
Still, we're all different, I guess.

Are you back to vinyl Brian? I recall you went digital only and atticed the TT?