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First impression: Herron VTPH-2A phono preamp

I got my VTPH-2A this morning and it's up and running. After about five hours of spinning vinyl, I'm pretty sure I've wet myself, MULTIPLE TIMES! I've primarily played vinyl that I've had for decades, music that I thought I was intimately familiar with. I was wrong. There's nuance I never knew existed. Everything about the VTPH-2A is "right". The bass is tight, vocals superb, instruments have places, etc.  All that I've listened to sounds new and fresh and the most masterfully recorded vinyl sounds live. What I've read about on this forum concerning the VTPH-2A (pretty much all stellar) is true. I've had five different phono preamps and nothing can compete with this, NOTHING. It's a bad ass and definitely a keeper.
professorsvsu

Showing 2 responses by analogluvr

analogluvr
859 posts
 
Almarg and George  I have the Herron phono and I tried it at length with a transformer paste passive. While it sounded good and very transparent I did go back to an active line stage due to feeling like there was a slight lack of bass impact and slight lack of dynamics. I used to be a believer in passive preamps but now after that experiment changed my mind. 
 It's good to see another individual discovered the benefits of Herron gear. Keith is great to deal with and I like that his products are not up in the rip off pricing category. I have heard many phonos costing more than twice as much but still would choose the Herron.  I constantly look at the gear for sale ads but never once think of changing out my phono anymore. 
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Just to clarify further about the passive preamp versus the active one, even with the passive I could easily get lots of volume. That wasn't the issue that made me go back to active.And one of the reasons why Scm  is having success with his passive configuration is because he added it to buffer. That changes everything. He said himself in his one post that now he runs the volume at a
I am of  The opposite mindset  of George, I wish amplifiers had less gain. It's easier for preamplifiers to not mess up the sound so I would rather establish the gain earlier on in the system and just have amplifiers providing the current when needed.
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