First impression: Herron VTPH-2A phono preamp

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

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 (:

What improvement is the VTPH-2A vs the VTPH-2?

I don’t think there’s much from what I saw of the specs, the 2A is 100ohms lower in output impedance, (400 instead of 500), the rest seemed the same.

2: http://www.herronaudio.com/images/vtph2data.pdf

2A http://www.herronaudio.com/vtph2specs.html at the bottom

Yep, 8db lower noise on the 2A

Cheers George

Thanks George 

Regarding the 8 db spec difference in S/N ratio between the VTPH-2 and VTPH-2A that George pointed out, I can say that one thing which has particularly amazed me about my VTPH-2 is how quiet it is. In fact when I listen with my Stax electrostatic headphones and no music is playing I hear absolutely nothing even with the volume control on the Stax amplifier at max (which is **way** higher than I would ever set it while listening to music). (With speakers I do hear some slight noise at high volume settings if I get close to the speakers, but that is clearly being introduced elsewhere in the system).

I see that the 80 db spec for the VTPH-2 is accompanied by the words "noise level will be tube dependent." Perhaps the 88 db spec for the 2A simply reflects a change Keith made in his choice of tube manufacturer at some point in the evolution of the design, and/or a change in the criteria he applies in the tests I assume he performs to weed out noisy tubes.

Best regards,
-- Al