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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
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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 
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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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georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Awesome! It’s a small world, as the saying goes.
Yeah, I don’t know if you know this but Kim (who owns Deqx) was the co/inventor of the first Fairlight Synthesizer back in 1979.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOlPCpSmhRM

Here's a pic of a young Kim Ryrie
https://www.mixonline.com/.image/t_share/MTUxNDIwMTI5OTI3MTc3NDQ2/509techof11gif.gif

Cheers George
scm
314 posts
 
@georgehifi
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.

George..I have a lot of volume on tap as it sits. My speakers are not all that efficient @ 87.5 db or something like that, they are Revel F52.
I had everything spec wise when I was looking for a buffer but I may have tossed them.
The amp is an ATI 3002

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georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
scm
Thanks for that info.

There you go Al, even with .24mV MC and 87db speakers plenty of volume on tap. And the ATI amp seems to be 1.8v sensitivity.

Your calculations have a hicup somewhere.

Cheers George
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