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
I agree. We're very fortunate in that regard.
I recently found and purchased an Ortofon MC2000 cartridge. When I first auditioned it, I neglected to note that my Atma-sphere MP1 was set for a 47K load on the cartridge, which would never have been my first choice for the MC2000, since it has 3 ohms internal resistance. However, I was blown away by the sound; it was very very "open" and wide in bandwidth and very dynamic. After playing 2 or 3 LPs, I realized my "error", and I re-set the load to 100R. The MC2000 still sounded excellent, but much of the magic was gone. Prior to this experience, I had not even investigated the possibility of loading LOMCs in this manner; now I cannot wait to try it with some others I own.
Lew, if you do experiment with "infinite" loading for other MCs, may I suggest you begin a new thread if you write up your results? I expect there will be enough interest to warrant a new heading of its own.

Thanks
I noticed the same thing with all my moving coil cartridges. I prefer them with no external loading plugs so just infinitely loaded.