Herron VTPH-2A vs ModWright PH 9.0

Your system seems to be well thought-out.  I do think you'd find improvement with either of these phono stages.  My Modwright does not have the upgraded transformer and slightly revised circuitry of the 9.0x.  I have heard from others that the new sut represents a pretty significant upgrade. 

FWIW, I actually run two tables through my Modwright, one (monaural) connected to the MM inputs and another connected to the MC inputs.  I can switch between them from the front panel without having to fiddle with patch cords.  I run mostly unbalanced, although for headphone listening, I can connect via balanced XLR to my headphone amp.  It's pretty versatile.  

My Aesthetix Rhea supported three decks, and a remote control for setting loading on the fly.  It was quiet and lovely with good NOS tubes, but tended to get noisier over time.  It had 10 tubes, so re-tubing it was an expensive proposition. 

The Modwright is dead quiet, and it's gain tubes provide a wide un-hyped frequency range.  It seems pretty darned neutral to me, which makes it hard to talk about what it is doing or not doing to help the music.

@vitamin_z given your location and already have excellent SUT, you should possibly also consider Croft RIAA-RS

i have the single chassis RS and a Herron. The former rewards tube rolling, the later no so much. Both are excellent values, well supported by the one person shop builders. the Croft is point to point, the Herron on a well thought out PCB. 

have fun, enjoy the music

I’m sad I only came across this thread now. I compared the Herron VTPH-2A to an older Modwright SWP 9.0 SE and thought the Modwright kicked the living daylights out of the Herron. The Herron was very polite and reserved in comparison, and the SWP had more soul and excitement. I also found it to be more holographic than the Herron. 
 

I moved on from the SWP onto the PH9.0 and now to the PH9.0X, and each upgrade was a substantial improvement from the prior. I have no doubt I would recommend the PH9.0 or PH9.0X well above the Herron, any day. The 9.0X especially is dead quiet, and lack of caps in the signal path do an incredible job of bringing out the most life. It is an endgame unit for me, even after comparing it with other phono stages from other manufacturers. 

@thiefoflight 

That PH9.0X does sound interesting and in the $4K range seems priced well against its features and design.  The more phono's I gain experience with the more I realize that the Herron is perhaps the most over-hyped phono of all time - developing nearly cult-like status thanks in part to a contributor on this board.  I owned the Herron and it was fine - priced about right.  It's sound is not refined at all, it's a bit noisy, the FET-based MC stage leaves quite a bit to be desired, and overall it sounds SS, not tube.  The lack of controls on the front made it a bear to dial in and I was only happy with it while using the MM tethered to a nice SUT.

My current Luxman EQ-500 is everything the Herron wasn't and simply a joy to use in every respect with a wonderfully refined, quiet, tube sound.  It's packed with features, a 7-tube compliment including tube rectification and all front panel controls, balanced options, multiple inputs etc.

In a second system I picked up a used Tavish Classic tube phono for $500 and paired it with a used $275 Rothwell MCX SUT.  Together they outperform the Herron!  Love that little combo. 

Enjoy your 9.0X!  Would like to hear one someday.

@three_easy_payments Thanks for your thoughts on the Herron and the Luxman. I’ve always itched to try the Luxman myself and likely will one day. Have you rolled tubes in it? If so what are your preferences?

I may have misspoke with the Herron. What I meant by refined is polite… restrained. I agree it was noisier than any Modwright unit I owned, which resulted in a lack of resolution. And it was just more… boring. Sometimes a component can be very high quality and refined and land in the same boring territory, even if it performs at a higher fidelity. The Herron was for sure noisier and further obscuring the music.