This is a quote from my previous thread 'remake your connections':
. . . "Ho-hum, what I'm not doing, is go through all that back tracking again. My assessment of the Croft stands as I listened to it with CD, BBC Radio 4 and Spotify, sounded great, and it did not hum when using the TT either. Stands to reason the unplug, reconnect terminal cleaning will have a similar positive effect on either amp."
Me being me, I was uneasy, the music from the computer sources was to good, the TT was OK but . . . ? as I say, I was not convinced. So this weekend, not feeling so good, needed to rest, I did a bit more listening, quite a lot in fact. All sorts, including digging out some vinyl of my late Fathers that has not been played for many a year.
Still wondering, I could not put my finger on this irritation, an itch I could not scratch. One was not jumping up and down making loads of adjustments, just thinking, listening and enjoying . . . 'but that itch' . . . ?
Then the penny dropped, the moving coil transformer, fundamental first connection from the TT . . . tucked away, out of sight out of mind, re made the connections, better, much better. More thinking, I had been blaming the valves, it seems it has been the connections all along. So logically, one should try the last valve change which was the single phase spliter, it had showed an improvement and then went edgy on me? Putting it back whilst Hazel was out of the room, she did not know I has replaced it . . . Chose a record she liked and new well, Carol Kidd on the 1985 Linn Aloi label, "All My Tomorrows", said nothing, not unusual, its one of our regular Horlicks hour choices . . . 'what you done while I was out of the room'? . . . said Hazel as we listened.
No more puzzling, the balanced valve sound is back, smooth, musicality that we can relax to.
Just shows, despite all my fussing and tweaking, I can and do get it wrong. Now relaxed, decided the Croft can be sold on to someone who can enjoy the first foot on the valve ladder . . .
CJSF
. . . "Ho-hum, what I'm not doing, is go through all that back tracking again. My assessment of the Croft stands as I listened to it with CD, BBC Radio 4 and Spotify, sounded great, and it did not hum when using the TT either. Stands to reason the unplug, reconnect terminal cleaning will have a similar positive effect on either amp."
Me being me, I was uneasy, the music from the computer sources was to good, the TT was OK but . . . ? as I say, I was not convinced. So this weekend, not feeling so good, needed to rest, I did a bit more listening, quite a lot in fact. All sorts, including digging out some vinyl of my late Fathers that has not been played for many a year.
Still wondering, I could not put my finger on this irritation, an itch I could not scratch. One was not jumping up and down making loads of adjustments, just thinking, listening and enjoying . . . 'but that itch' . . . ?
Then the penny dropped, the moving coil transformer, fundamental first connection from the TT . . . tucked away, out of sight out of mind, re made the connections, better, much better. More thinking, I had been blaming the valves, it seems it has been the connections all along. So logically, one should try the last valve change which was the single phase spliter, it had showed an improvement and then went edgy on me? Putting it back whilst Hazel was out of the room, she did not know I has replaced it . . . Chose a record she liked and new well, Carol Kidd on the 1985 Linn Aloi label, "All My Tomorrows", said nothing, not unusual, its one of our regular Horlicks hour choices . . . 'what you done while I was out of the room'? . . . said Hazel as we listened.
No more puzzling, the balanced valve sound is back, smooth, musicality that we can relax to.
Just shows, despite all my fussing and tweaking, I can and do get it wrong. Now relaxed, decided the Croft can be sold on to someone who can enjoy the first foot on the valve ladder . . .
CJSF
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