Herron VTPH-2

Without a doubt, the TFK ECC83 is one of the truly great tubes of audio. It transformed my vintage Quicksilver preamplifier, too.  I have four of them in my stash since the 1970s. I use one each in the phono and linestages.  (The Q uses one half of each dual triode per channel, for stereo.)  You guys have me just about convinced that I need to try a VTPH2.  The circuit and the construction look like nothing special, but this may be a case where the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.  (Actually, the Quicksilver full function preamplifier that I am using in my second system also fits that description.)

Lew - Call Keith Herron and arrange an audition.  Investigate the value of your current phono stage and prepare it for sale.

I'm not at all active in these forums, but it's miserably hot outside and I stumbled onto this.  I have owned a VTPH-2 for nine years and am very happy with it.  Keith is great to work with.  My configuration may be of some use. I use Keith's interconnect, phono to pre-amp. Current tube configuration: 4 Mullard 12ax7's, JJ 12at7 all new, not NOS or vintage.  The Mullards are the warmest of anything I've tried, and I've tried EI's Ruby's and others. That being said, the Mullards are not soft or syrupy, just a good match for the rest of my system.  The JJ 12at7 is a great value for the money.  I've tried fancy NOS Mullards and a cryo Gold Lion in the 12at7 slot and always go back to the JJ. Most notable is it's bass reproduction. Much tighter.  My VTPH-2 sits on three original Stillpoints, two with points down, one with points up.  The last tweak I've made, and one that really stabilized the presentation was a rack mod.  I have a VPI rack, sand filled.  The phono stage sat on a 1" thick maple shelf that rested on the second rack, held down by gravity with two VPI bricks resting on the shelf.  Seemed less than state of the art given all the attention racks are getting these days. So, I cut eight slots in the shelf and looped metal hose clamps through them, looping them them around the racks front to back struts. I put a strip of fo.Q tape between the shelf and the rack bars and then tightened down the hose clamps, hard, squeezing the shelf down onto the rack/fo.Q tape.  Imaging went from acceptable to nearly rock solid.  That was confirmed when I had some guys over to play pool, which I do about once a month.  I had to run them out at 2:00 AM, they were still making requests.  That had never happened before.  Cartridge/tonearm/TT Lyra Delos, ET II ,VPI TNT jr. Oh yeah, I use Herbie's tube dampers too. 

Great post! Have you heard of roller bearings (or perhaps Geoffrey’s springs)? They’re good under tube phono stages---isolation from micro-vibrations. Townshend’s Seismic Pod Isolators too, but they’re a little over-priced imo. Not in terms of cost-effectiveness, but in terms of cost-to-manufacture (it’s just a spring in a rubber sleeve, for God’s sake) to price ratio.

I've heard nothing better than the Herron and the et2 and Delos are a wicked combo as well. I have those on a tnt. The odd time that bit of sweetness on the Delos annoys me a touch tho. I think the cart is the weak link there.