The cat would like to thank NVA...

[AshM750.]

I would love to hear your thoughts on the phono 1, do you have anything to compare it to ?

P.S NVA does pack their kit well, better than anyone ive ever dealt with.

[brit-pop]

Congratulations, the amps have just passed the DSOTM test with flying colours!

As you might guess from my avatar I'm a bit of a Floyd fanatic and even spent a number of years playing the RW role in what I like to think was a pretty decent tribute act. As such I know the material intricately, indeed the band used to play this album in its entirety as one of our sets and spent a year rehearsing it and getting it just right.

This meant ensuring our samples and live sound had the presence and balance, not to recreate the album but to translate it into an enjoyable live show. The album's themes of life and death resonate with me as it saw me through a period where I lost a close relative to cancer and a friend to a freak motorbike accident. Through playing it live and rehearsing it it so often it became passe and I lost the emotional connection I felt with it.

Putting it on this morning, the connection and involvement returned all in an instant. Thoughts of Peter and Jess returned and I'm not ashamed to say that by the time it got to great gig in the sky I had welled up!

Would take something special to make me do that to this album again so well done!

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

That is the difference between music and hi-fi.

BTW it will still be getting better for at least another week if you leave it on all the time. Mostly the improvement will be in dynamics and bass extension.

[brit-pop]

That is the difference between music and hi-fi.

BTW it will still be getting better for at least another week if you leave it on all the time. Mostly the improvement will be in dynamics and bass extension.

So it's Friday evening and I'm at home unwinding with a few tunes after a busy week of travel, work and a bit of domestic stress to boot.

The A40s are sounding lovely after a week left on, natural, honest, transparent but most of all musical.

Today a new addition to the system arrived, a Croft micro basic with phono stage. Whilst I've not got my deck set up properly yet so not had a chance to properly compare it with the Phono 1, as line preamp/buffer feeding my passive pre it is a magical combination with the NVA amps.

As I write I'm enjoying a bit of Rodrigo y Gabriella, and their acoustic guitars are sounding so melodic and right. One plays a very percussive style and the other does lots of harmonics and technical playing. It all sounds very right.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

With the mk2 A40 you don't need the passive pre as a buffer, if you prefer the Croft just use it on its own. Never used a Croft one but I am obviously familiar with other valve pre amps, and me no likeee. Coloured and artificially euphonic, which can make you prefer them, but not for me.

There are others who agree with you so my opinion has no more validity than theirs. Curiously it works the other way around as well. I have many many valve amp enthusiasts who use mine and other passive pre's as preference. For me and NVA loads of old Quad and Leak valve amps with P50s feeding them.

[jammy395]

Well ive never had it off since I got my AP10h-JS..!! its been 48 hrs now and I fukin luv it......Shona on the other hand is starting to feel neglected.....

[_D_S_J_R_]

The Croft Micro basic is just that - BASIC and rather raw with it. The phono stages used to be really good if loaded properly, open, clear, quiet and no artificial 'warmth' at all if you didn't have the fancy 'Octal' versions. The Micro 25 has a touch of plum to it, but it's very slight and this is all but refined out in the R and RS versions and only ever audible when compared to known 'neutral' alternatives (last time I did the comparison was a 25/7 both singly and together against Icon's KT120 model and Albarry).

As said above, you don't need an active preamp into an NVA amp and although Marco preferred the sonics of an NVA he heard with his own 'enhanced' Croft feeding it, the fact that it made such a difference against a P50 worries me somewhat, as a P50 has NO sound at all that I can hear when used with an NVA power amp.

[Macca]

As said above, you don't need an active preamp into an NVA amp and although Marco preferred the sonics of an NVA he heard with his own 'enhanced' Croft feeding it, the fact that it made such a difference against a P50 worries me somewhat, as a P50 has NO sound at all that I can hear when used with an NVA power amp.

It was my P90SA not a P50. The Croft did sound 'prettier' and more solid, the P90 was a bit lighter and fluffier, for want of a better word. I know the Croft is pretty neutral sounding in its home system so I wouldn't put the difference down to valve colouration automatically. But active vs passive pre amps are always going to be different.

I had a Micro Basic pre for a couple of years and it is stunning in so many ways but I found it a bit too coloured for my tastes.

[_D_S_J_R_]

In direct comparison with a pukka 25 preamp, the Micro Basic does sound rather raw on all inputs. That's why there are superior models with ever-sophisticated power supplies and line stages as you go up the range.

[brit-pop]

As said above, you don't need an active preamp into an NVA amp and although Marco preferred the sonics of an NVA he heard with his own 'enhanced' Croft feeding it, the fact that it made such a difference against a P50 worries me somewhat, as a P50 has NO sound at all that I can hear when used with an NVA power amp.

It was my P90SA not a P50. The Croft did sound 'prettier' and more solid, the P90 was a bit lighter and fluffier, for want of a better word. I know the Croft is pretty neutral sounding in its home system so I wouldn't put the difference down to valve colouration automatically. But active vs passive pre amps are always going to be different.

I had a Micro Basic pre for a couple of years and it is stunning in so many ways but I found it a bit too coloured for my tastes.

You've not heard my techie Martin, a bit of colour is what it needs. All the information is there but it's lacking a bit soul...