Post by Bigman80 on Sept 22, 2020 7:13:24 GMT
As Most of you know by now, I rarely turn down the opportunity to audition a piece of kit. Rarely though, do I request one.
Upon a recent visit to Alans, I spy a rather intimidating lump of Valve amp….a Croft MK 4. I was very interested in listening to this as I am constantly told how good Glens' earlier wares are. I managed to wrangle 24 hours out of this one, as it needed a soak test, and what better place for that to happen than at my house.
The Croft cuts an impressive figure. It weighs a ton, has a nicely finished enclosure and looking through the grill on top, there are some meaty transformers.
I must apologise here as I am in no mans land over what valves were in it, other than a row of 6550’s at the back.
I am sure with some digging i can find out, so i will do so and insert the details here [.....................]
I hooked up the cables to the amplifier, which for some reason had the mains cable at the front and the signal connections at the rear. This makes it impossible to rack, or even make sense of which way round it should be. Odd.
I let the Croft warm up for 20 minutes and sat down for a listen. I used the Pecan Pi throughout,
I put on Hans Theessink’s "Slow Train" Album.
I was immediately tapping the foot. The soundstage was a bit more condensed into a smaller area than with the 686, but it was very acceptable. The sound was very lucid, open and felt rather tangible. The vocals had a good amount of resolution and timbral acumen. It was good. A few tracks into the album and i had to leave for some food….God bless JUST EAT!
I came back and picked up where i left off. However, as i sat down to listen, the magic had gone. The sound was pretty veiled. I thought this to be very strange. I listened for another hour and it started to recapture some of the magic i had previously heard.
It never got all the way back.
I abandoned the listening and decided it must be my mind playing tricks.
Next day proved pretty much the same experience. All starts off well enough and then loses it's sparkle. Almost like when it gets up to temperature, it goes all soggy. Rather than inspiring, it sounded like it was expiring. Flabby, plodding, non descript bass, veiled mids and a closed in sound made this quite a short review.
I left the Croft on for about 6 hours, listening intermittently, but it never changed its character at all over the time i spent wwith it. Sounding at it's best when it was cold.
I usually like to try and find a positive comment or experience from everything i try, and although i have tried, i just cant think of anything positive to say. Igot my £18 Chi-Fi amp out of the garage, plumbed it in and far prefered it in every way possible.
The only reason for this i can think of, is that there must have been some mismatch somewhere. It clipped at very normal listening levels and never really got the speakers going. It won't have been between the pre and power, as thats designed to not be an issue with ANY amplifier, so i am thinking the speakers were too hard for the amplifer to drive, which means the amp must be pretty low powered? Whatever it was, it did not work out here.
The Croft MK4 can still be found online for about £1200.....Personally, if you are looking for a valve amplifier, at that price, this is one to avoid after this experience.
Buy a PrimaLuna instead.
Upon a recent visit to Alans, I spy a rather intimidating lump of Valve amp….a Croft MK 4. I was very interested in listening to this as I am constantly told how good Glens' earlier wares are. I managed to wrangle 24 hours out of this one, as it needed a soak test, and what better place for that to happen than at my house.
The Croft cuts an impressive figure. It weighs a ton, has a nicely finished enclosure and looking through the grill on top, there are some meaty transformers.
I must apologise here as I am in no mans land over what valves were in it, other than a row of 6550’s at the back.
I am sure with some digging i can find out, so i will do so and insert the details here [.....................]
I hooked up the cables to the amplifier, which for some reason had the mains cable at the front and the signal connections at the rear. This makes it impossible to rack, or even make sense of which way round it should be. Odd.
I let the Croft warm up for 20 minutes and sat down for a listen. I used the Pecan Pi throughout,
I put on Hans Theessink’s "Slow Train" Album.
I was immediately tapping the foot. The soundstage was a bit more condensed into a smaller area than with the 686, but it was very acceptable. The sound was very lucid, open and felt rather tangible. The vocals had a good amount of resolution and timbral acumen. It was good. A few tracks into the album and i had to leave for some food….God bless JUST EAT!
I came back and picked up where i left off. However, as i sat down to listen, the magic had gone. The sound was pretty veiled. I thought this to be very strange. I listened for another hour and it started to recapture some of the magic i had previously heard.
It never got all the way back.
I abandoned the listening and decided it must be my mind playing tricks.
Next day proved pretty much the same experience. All starts off well enough and then loses it's sparkle. Almost like when it gets up to temperature, it goes all soggy. Rather than inspiring, it sounded like it was expiring. Flabby, plodding, non descript bass, veiled mids and a closed in sound made this quite a short review.
I left the Croft on for about 6 hours, listening intermittently, but it never changed its character at all over the time i spent wwith it. Sounding at it's best when it was cold.
I usually like to try and find a positive comment or experience from everything i try, and although i have tried, i just cant think of anything positive to say. Igot my £18 Chi-Fi amp out of the garage, plumbed it in and far prefered it in every way possible.
The only reason for this i can think of, is that there must have been some mismatch somewhere. It clipped at very normal listening levels and never really got the speakers going. It won't have been between the pre and power, as thats designed to not be an issue with ANY amplifier, so i am thinking the speakers were too hard for the amplifer to drive, which means the amp must be pretty low powered? Whatever it was, it did not work out here.
The Croft MK4 can still be found online for about £1200.....Personally, if you are looking for a valve amplifier, at that price, this is one to avoid after this experience.
Buy a PrimaLuna instead.
