Herron VTSP-2a vs EAR 324

@dhcod: Say, have you tried 5751 tubes in place of the stock 12AX7's in your Herron? They're interchangeable, 5751's just providing less gain than 12AX7's. Deccas hardly need the extra gain, and the 5751 may afford a greater overload margin. Frank Van Alstine uses 5751's in his Dynaco PAS mod, and the AVA PAS 2 I had in the '80's was the quietest tube pre I've ever owned.

bdp24 I actually don't have the Herron any more. I was just using it a point of reference. I loved it with my prior cartridges but with the Decca I found a couple phono preamps that sounded better. Thanks so much for your other advice though! Really helpful.

Thanks cdavids449! I have heard the Aethetix and that's a great comparison for me. I bought the 324 listed here. Hopefully it'll be what I'm looking for. It'll certainly be a very interesting and fun experiment.

Dhcod..you'll be happy, a lot less tubes to worry about! Lol

So the 324 is quite good. Not sure it’s as tactile or has as good of soundstage as a top tube phono pre but no noise is a pretty good trade off.... so far. One thing for sure is the 324 benefits from being left on. I wasn't sure at first but I think after a week it really started to sound good, different. I’ll swap back in a tube phono this weekend and decide which one stays.