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Herron VTPH-2A final thoughts.

A year ago, I took the plunge and purchased a new phono pre-amp, the VTPH-2A. I'd read numerous posts on this forum about how special it is, head and shoulders above the rest. I'd also read that Keith Herron is the definition of quality, in terms of knowledge, customer service, and being real as a human being.  I'll be as objective as I can be: everything that was stated is 100% true. I've easily spent hundreds of hours spinning up vinyl with the VTPH-2A and nearly every time my comment to myself is, "damn that's good." Many audiophiles would fret about the synergy with other system components. My opinion is that it would be an overachiever in any system that endeavors to produce fine music.
With respect to Keith, I contacted him not for technical support or customer service, but to let him know how pleased I was with my purchase. His response was so gracious, I felt like I was talking to a friend or good neighbor. Definitely someone honest and worth doing business with.
I want to close this post by thanking the folks on the forum for sharing experience and what you know. I live a very rural life and don't travel much. Opportunities to critique a variety of equipment at shows or audio shops are virtually nonexistent for me. Audiogon has been an excellent place to narrow down the thousands of possible choices that I could never possibly pursue and sometimes get solid advice =)
professorsvsu

Showing 4 responses by millercarbon

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Yeah. But when it comes to Keith I think awesome is normal.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Keith's stuff tends to sound good right out of the box. From there it only gets better. A lot. And fast. I gave mine hardly any warm-up at all and as a result was rewarded with hearing it improve so fast it sounded different at the end of one song than it had at the beginning! I find all the best gear to be like this. Not that it happens often. Most gear is by definition not the best. All the really good stuff though, it sounds good right out of the box. This business of "needs 200 hours" is for the also-rans. Looking forward to your listening impressions of this new amp.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
There was a "woody" tonal character to the sound of my ARC PH3-SE, that evidently was there all along but that I never even noticed until the Herron went in and it disappeared. Only when it was gone did I notice. Even then when I did notice what hit me is the character of the missing sound was just the kind of thing you would readily associate with a speaker but never with anything to do with an electronic component like a phono stage. Yet there it was. Er, wasn’t.

As recounted in my review, the improvement the Herron made was so great that my wife noticed and remarked on it even through the door in another room while she was busy doing something else.


millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
That was pretty much my experience exactly. Kept reading comments and reviews, couldn't find anything locally worth buying, read a bunch more then finally called Keith. Never recommend anything but in-home audition but sometimes you just can't. Honestly, given the reviews and then after talking to Keith, just seemed like as close to a sure thing as you ever can get.

Since then I have called Keith a couple times. Yes one was just to tell him how happy I am! Hard to say which is his most impressive character trait, perfectionism or modesty. Either way just what you want in a builder.

Just a little fyi- building these things requires things like ordering rather large production runs of parts like the chassis which ties up a lot of capital. Not all that long ago he was at the decision point of maybe making the last VTPH-2A. I would have had nearly the last one made. 

I mention this because in talking with Keith this came up and he decided to continue making these and that my Audiogon review was a factor. Now in no way am I taking credit. Rather this is to make the point there really are some people like Keith who are in this and doing it for more than the money.  


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