Any Herron VTPH-2 Phono Stage Owners out there?

What is "infinite loading"? Surely there has to be a load resistor between the grid of the input voltage amplifier tube and ground; in the absence of any other resistors in parallel, and in the absence of a SUT, that resistor is the load seen by the cartridge. It can be higher in value than 47K but not infinite.

Lew, call Keith Herron. He can give an explanation of the design. He's easy to talk to.

Lew, the LOMC input stage of the VTPH-2 is FET-based rather than tube-based. Depending on the particular device and how the surrounding circuit is implemented, FET stages can have input impedances in the billions of ohms, and I believe in some cases even in the trillions of ohms, at least at frequencies that are relevant to audio.

I note that a poster earlier in the thread indicated that the "natural" input impedance of that input is 1 megohm. Even if the number is that low, however, it would not be unreasonable to consider it to be essentially infinite for all practical purposes.

Best regards,

-- Al
(A very happy recent purchaser of a VTPH-2. And as many others have said in this and other threads, what a pleasure Keith is to deal with!!!).

I recently received a Herron VTPH-2 from Keith Herron. I bought the unit at the same time that I updated my VTSP-3A(r02) to (r03) status and updated my M1A's to current production standards. I own a Nagra VPS phono stage along with a Nagra PL-L line stage and Nagra VPA power amps, each of which is substantially more expensive than its Herron counterpart. While I have not completed a comprehensive comparison of the new and updated Herron pieces against their Nagra peers, after two full days of running in, I can say that the Herron gear holds its own with the Nagra gear. Of course, there seem to be pluses and minuses but it may be a bit early for me to declare one preferable to the other.

I can say, with absolute certainty, that Keith Herron is among the very best people in audio with whom to deal. He is honest,  accommodating, low-key and knowledgeable. He makes me - and others with whom I have spoken - want to own Herron gear. As I think about it, maybe I have undersold Keith as only being "among" the very best people in audio.

Any experience of users of the Cary SLP-98 phono compared to the Herron phono VTSP-2 or VTSP-3A?   I am not satisfied with the Cary and find it noisy and want something that is dead quiet when playing vinyl.  Any recommendations appreciated.....