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Any Herron VTPH-2 Phono Stage Owners out there?

Has anyone recently purchased a VTPH-2? Any thoughts compared to other phono stages costing around the same price of $3,600? That still is a lot of money and a lot of good competition out there. I was also looking at a couple of the Sutherland units (the DUO and the 20/20).

Another concern is that I have a Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP Integrated Amp and was wondering how another tube phono stage would sound with the tube phono stage? Is it better to Mix solid state phono stage with a Tube Amp or keep it all the same (all tubes or all solid state?). My turntable is a VPI Prime with Ortofon Quintet black cartridge. Thanks!
djfst
bpoletti
1,536 posts
 
The VTPH-2 can be loaded externally. There is a provision for external loading on the back of the unit near the MC inputs.
rsrex
45 posts
 
From what I remember, the VTPH2 has 2 sets of inputs - 1 for mm and 1 for mc. You can tie an external SUT into the MM (47K) input without issue. Also, regarding the MC impedance, Keith is an advocate of "infinite" loading. I believe the natural input impedance of the MC stage is 1Meg. As such, adding any load resistance 47K or lower will result is an input impedance that is essentially the value of the load resistor.
lewm
12,566 posts
 
Bpoletti and Rsrex, I stand corrected. I went to the Herron website, and I do see that the VTPH2 sports separate MM and MC inputs, plus the load at the MC input can be easily varied by using plug-in resistor modules. FWIW, I recently was rather surprised to find that my Ortofon MC2000 "likes" a 47K load (vs 1000R or 100R) into my Atma-sphere MP1 phono stage, which has enough gain to deal with its very very low output without the aid of a SUT. I may be a convert to "infinite loading".

No one asked, but the Atma MP1 phono is world class, too.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 
Keith Herron's championing of infinite loading is just one example of his creative mind, free of doctrine and dogma, but informed by knowledge and experience. Plus he's a musician!
lewm
12,566 posts
 
Bdp24, OK, but Mr Herron did not originate the notion of un-loading MCs (by using a high value load resistor). Far from it. I doubt he would claim this idea for himself in the first place. Allen Wright (of Vacuum State), JCarr (Lyra), and Ralph Karsten (Atma-sphere) are just 3 others who advocate this approach. And I am sure none of them would claim to be the first to think of it, either. This is not to say that Keith Herron is not a smart guy.
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