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First impression: Herron VTPH-2A phono preamp

I got my VTPH-2A this morning and it's up and running. After about five hours of spinning vinyl, I'm pretty sure I've wet myself, MULTIPLE TIMES! I've primarily played vinyl that I've had for decades, music that I thought I was intimately familiar with. I was wrong. There's nuance I never knew existed. Everything about the VTPH-2A is "right". The bass is tight, vocals superb, instruments have places, etc.  All that I've listened to sounds new and fresh and the most masterfully recorded vinyl sounds live. What I've read about on this forum concerning the VTPH-2A (pretty much all stellar) is true. I've had five different phono preamps and nothing can compete with this, NOTHING. It's a bad ass and definitely a keeper.
professorsvsu
scm
314 posts
 
Just to add a liitle bit to the thread.
I`m using the Herron VTPH 1 MC plus phono stage along with my Tortuga preamp set at 99K and I`m also using a tube based buffer with it .

After nearly two years of using the Herron just as Keith sent it, I recently took out 2 of the Sovteks and put 2 Shuguang 12AX7B`s in.
My phono cartridge is lowish on the output @ .24 mv and so far the system has everything I need.
Has great bass, a lot of airy detail and the amps seem to be just cruising along with little effort !

I had Georges preamp prior and I really enjoyed it and would have kept it in the system but I liked the idea of having a remote and the adjustable impedance feature of the Tortuga Audio.


celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
@professorsvsu. 

Did you send it into the factory to have it checked out and updated if needed? I did that with several companies where the products had multiple owners. (I couldn’t recall your purchase history of this one.). I sent gear back to Audible Illusions, Conrad-Johnson, Juicy Music, dB Audio Systems and others for updates and checkout. Always a great experience in doing so. 
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
scm
My phono cartridge is lowish on the output @ .24 mv and so far the system has everything I need


So you had enough volume with the passive even though you had a very low 0.24mV MC cartiridge, you didn't have >100db horn speakers? also what was your amps gain or sensitivity? And the VP1 is the same gain and even higher output impedance.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
For my preamp I used a DEQX HDP-5, which as you may be aware is produced by some of your fellow countrymen Down Under, and provides numerous DSP-based functions including improving speaker time coherence and room correction. To make that possible analog inputs are converted to digital

Yes I know Kim and Al very well, they are 200mts down the road from me in Brookvale.
So Al now I know it's not possible for you to go passive with the Herron, as you use the Deqx as the pre, your converting your vinyl to digital then doing room/speaker digital eq'ing and xover'ing to it, then bringing it back to analogue domain again.

Cheers George 
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Yes I know Kim and Al very well, they are 200mts down the road from me in Brookvale.
Awesome! It's a small world, as the saying goes. I've spoken with Al (Alan Langford) at length on the phone on one occasion, and communicated via email on several other occasions. He's always been very helpful, and a pleasure to deal with.

Professorsvsu, apologies for the digression.

Best regards,
-- Al

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