Herron VTPH-2A Phono Preamp....anyone familiar?

@uberwaltz

Just had a very pleasant phone conversation with Keith . Both in agreement that present amp and his phono should be a match made in audio heaven. And his direct sale pricing is VERY fair imho. Just have to sell the Gold Note now.....

You gave up so quickly after so many praise for the Gold Note in your posts.

Tube phono stage is not for everyone imo (same about tube amps).

But in general this is a prime exaple that we like something only until we will find something better. But you must check the Herron in your own system first, before you will sell Gold Note. Looking forward for your reports about it, but not in the first week after purchase :)

@jcoehler

I sold my Gold Note in favor of the Herron, the VTPH-2A does everything better.

Is it better in low register? The only weak point of the Gold Note in my system is the bass. But the best bass i have with mosfet phono stage (no tubes).

@uberwaltz It is not about right or wrong and i am not advocate of Gold Note here, in fact you guys promoted it for 2 years. I feel the lack of bass with this phono stage, sadly.  

Just curious how many phono stages we have to buy. 

I bought two, but my first one still better in low registed than all of the new phono stages i bought (including gold note) pretending for upgrade. Comparison is the key. 

After reading audiogon for years i see most people are from the USA and they are always vote for Made in USA products when it comes to the phono stages. 

I'm looking forward to read your comments about Gold Note vs. Herron 

I urge you guys to read an elementary book on audio electronics. You might thereby learn to understand why a preamp (for one example) exhibits disappointing bass response compared to another. In this case, it might simply be a matter of the value of the output coupling capacitor. If so, the problem can be fixed by installing a different capacitor of higher value. Also one needs to pay attention to the input impedance of the device that the preamplifier is driving. These factors can make all the difference in the world, And they can be fixed without spending thousands of dollars on an entirely new device.

Interesting, maybe i will crack it up one day to see what's inside.
This italian phono stage only need more bass (imo). 

The infinite loading surprised me.

For the Herron, I had 220 and 470ohm plugs made for my cartridge as this is what the Gold Note offered and sounded good when using. I initially tried the plugs with the Herron and it sounded excellent. When I removed the plugs and went infinite load, it elevated the subtleties and clarity.

47k Ohm loading on Gold Note for MC cartridges is almost "infinity", did you try that ? 

I have another phono stage with plug-in load resisteors (the JLTi) and i like 47k Ohm for some MC cartridges. My JLTi was customized by manufacturer, i have 500k Ohm resistor inside, so i can plug 47k Ohm resistor (rca plugs) from the outside just like in Herron.  

I have no problem with clarity using Gold Note, it is crystal clear phono stage, but i feel the obvious lack of deep bass in Gold Note compared to my upgraded WLM Phono stage which is a kind of body and bass compared to all phono stages i have tried. I tried the Gold Note with headamp and with sut, but the low register is still not as good as my WLM Phonata to my surprise.   

Maybe Lew is right and i have to look at the  output coupling capacitor inside the Gold Note. 

If you think your system sounds great, why not just stick with it? Keep in mind that if you go with tubes, you may end up going down the "rabbit hole", spending countless hours and dollars looking to get the lowest noise and highest performing tubes. This is coming from a tube guy.

Exactly, even in the line level pre-amp or power amp.

In a phono stage can be more problematic, especially for LOMC cartridges.

If you want a very special phono stage for low impedance LOMC then check Current Mode (Current Injection) type of phono stages like 47 Labs Phono Cube or others. 

My amplifier is the Yamaha A-S3000 integrated. I'm not going to add a separate preamp. I don't need additional power so that rules out a power amp. My mono TT uses a high output MC mono cartridge. My stereo TT uses a MM cart. If I ever upgrade to a LOMC and a problem develops, I still have the internal discrete phono stage of the Yamaha. However, adding a separate phono preamp solves another problem. There is only one set of phono inputs on the back of the amp so I have to disconnect and reconnect the other TT every time I go from playing a mono record to a stereo record.

How does it all related to the OP question ? 

Tube phono stage with tube amp will generate more noise than solid state type. I also have Yamamoto, but A-08s. 

In your situation the Gold Note PH-10 is a phono stage with 2 independent MM/MC input, you can connect two turntables and each one can be MM or MC. Yamaha is junk @vuch  

Oops, I made a mistake and misread the Yamaha and Yamamoto from my phone for some reason. So you don’t even own Yamamoto :)

Now i think it’s you who must read what is Yamamoto A-08s and read the reviews and check the price.

I did my search about Yamaha, a company who made cheap receivers for home cinema most of the time. That new product look like an old receivers same style), hope it’s better. I don’t care about reviews, never seen a bad review for anything made today, they are always raving about new product whatever it is.

Anyway, we’re off topic here.

Tube Phono Stage = More noise
Tube amp + tube phono stage = even more noise.