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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
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
IMO, in most circumstances if the front end of a system cannot drive a power amp to full power the system has not been configured in an optimal manner.
I hope you don’t mean it’s going to be more "dynamic" if it’s plenty loud enough for the user, but can’t clip the amplifier in theoretical terms, as some shonk’s here on Audiogon have tried to make out

Cheers George
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
I actually had to run a splitter off the back of the tube buffer because it only has one output.
So, one goes to my subwoofer amp and the other goes to the main amp.
It may be wrong technically (I don`t know) but it seems to work.

Whether or not that would have a sonic downside would depend on the output impedance of the buffer, the input impedance of the sub, and the input impedance of the main amp. And if either or both pairs of cables that are involved are especially long it may also depend on the the length and the capacitance per unit length of the particular cables.

These things can all be calculated if the relevant parameters are known.

Best regards,
-- Al
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
I hope you don’t mean it’s going to be more dynamic if it’s plenty loud enough, but can’t clip the amplifier in theoretical terms, as some shonks here have tried to make out

What I primarily mean is that the user will have paid for amplifier power that cannot be utilized. And it would have been better to direct the $ that went toward watts that can’t be utilized toward something else in the system. Perhaps toward a lower powered but higher quality amplifier, if the lower power capability is in fact adequate.

Best regards,
-- Al
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Hey, I have three times as much wattage than I need, I don’t use it.

99.9% of use don’t use our full wattage potential that we have on tap, idiots that do will need speaker repairs very quickly.

So loud enough is loud enough, and there’s no penalty if you can’t clip your amp with the given signal, so long as you can reach the level you need, having the ability to go up to 11 doesn’t give you any sound quality advantage at all.

Cheers George
jmolsberg's avatar
jmolsberg
467 posts
 
What improvement is the VTPH-2A vs the VTPH-2?
The cost to upgrade seems very reasonable. I'd prefer to get the scoop here and not waste Keith's time (:
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