I need to also disclose that I am now a dealer for Keith and became one only after becoming a customer of Herron Audio. I am so impressed with the sound his gear makes that I am making an investment in high end audio as a business venture.
I've been at this hobby for almost 30 years and Keith's VTSP-3A preamp and VTPH-2 phono stage are great sounding products and I say this after using some of the best, including Supratek, CJ, CAT, Hovland and many others. They are, in fact, the best phono stage and preamp I have ever used.
I am awaiting my pair of M1's that will attempt to take the place of a pair of incredible sounding Pass XA100.5 amplifiers. I would love to have been given the chance to represent Pass, but unfortunately I am not a brick and mortar store and in a small market surrounded by larger markets. Keith, on the other hand, has given me the opportunity to offer his gear and I am happy to be given the chance to do this.
Beside the wonderful sound quality his gear re-produces, Keith is a true gentleman and his products are professionally engineered and built, with great ergonomics and useful features. As noted, he also is customer service friendly and very dependable, which is often not common in this industry. I could tell stories.....
I'll report on how the M1's compare to the Pass amps, once delivered and broken in, but for anyone interested in a preamp or phono stage, please search out your local Herron dealer and give a listen to this gear. You won't be sorry. |
Indeed Fig. Congrats on becoming a dealer. A little more commentary on the preamp. People need to ignore the price on the VTSP-3a. If you think it cost to much and you are one of those caught up in this hobby (as most on this board are), it will actually save you money. You will not feel the need to move up or anywhere from where you are with the VTSP-3a. On the other end, if you don't think the VTSP-3A is "high end" enough for you, don't worry about it. It's performance will compete with stuff that cost A LOT more. |
Did I just stumble upon a pot of gold...
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Received my VTSP 3A last night, cold out of the box and all I can say is WOW! Rich, dynamic with you can almost grab images. You can almost feel the emotions of the Violin and Cello player in "You raise me up" track. I definitely feel like I've been transported and loving it and I have many more hours of play before the unit is at its best.
Kudos to Keith at Herron for his dedication to music and his devotion in designing audio playback components that captures the original performance.
I can't wait to get the kids in bed tonight for more therapy sessions :o) |
Since this thread was brought back, I was wondering if Mitch got to try the Herron vs the Lamm. Mitch? |
No, Lewinski, unfortunately I have not yet tried the Herron and I am currently running a MUSE Model Three Signature preamp with outboard display/power supply into my balanced Clayton M300 amps. Although nowhere near as expensive as some preamps I have owned, the MUSE is holding it's own and is a very good preamp for the money, offering incredible features such as a volume control with 255 steps (displayed in absolute 0.5 dB increments), gain adjustment/matching for each input, phase switch, balance, mute, and ability to remain always on. It also offers very impressive clarity and resolution, while being quiet, very dynamic (26dB gain), and providing a sound that is slightly on the warm side of neutral and more dimensional and “meaty” than many SS products.
I will be curious to see what I think of the MUSE after putting the Lamm back in my system and comparing the two.
I would still like to try the Herron, but for now I am more interested in hearing very good fully balanced preamps that will mate better with my amps, since I have to use Jensen transformers to convert single-ended outputs to balanced when using single-ended preamps. |
Mitch2,
Thanks for the reply. If you ever try that out, please let us know.
BTW, I ended up buying a Lamm LL2 Deluxe, after much research. Your posts played a role towards my decision, so I'm particularly interested. Have you tweaked your Lamm in any way?
The MUSE sounds interesting. |
Since the Lamm is off topic, and I don't want to hijack the Herron thread, I will send you an e-mail. |
Great to hear all the positive responses about Herron gear. Keith Herron is a first rate gentleman who makes some of the best high end gear out there. I haven't used his VTSP preamps but I owned a VTPH-1mc+ and just upgraded to the VTPH-2 phono preamp. It is so quiet (especially given it has tubes), and so musical, and it draws the energy and organic presence out of the vinyl in a way other phono preamps fail to. Just like Basis Audio (and founder/CEO A.J. Conti), we are fortunate to have US based audio companies like Herron where the owners/founders spend their time bringing absolutely superbly engineered/built products to market, versus spending their time hyping or marketing sub-par components like many other audio brands do. |
I would like to input to this thread again as I have finally got my new 3A last week. I did not like the 3 but 3A is totally different! -- “Very Musical”--. The VTSP-2 is more neutral but a little lean, yet cleaner from top to bottom. 3A has more body and its bass goes much deeper. It is also more vivid in texture and tones. I think it sounds more like a tube-amp now than before. My friend got the earliest version of 3A and there seems to be some changes inside!! We believed this latest batches sounds a tinny bit warmer but even more musical than those before!
I would like to ask if anyone has background noise with the amps, with ‘ssssss’ noises when there is no music! I heard it very quiet in my friend’s place but I have background noise in my setup! I hope someone and give me some advice. |
I have not heard the fuzz in my system, but I haven't put the ear up close either. It also could be the amp? |
No, I heard it from my seat! Spoken to Keith and he did say it has to do with gains matching with power amps. Anything below 24db is good. I tried low gain and it's quiet but that mod does not sound as lively as in High gain. My friend told me to unearth all grounds and use dedicated power line. I will be going that path to be my next goal. |
Does your amp have a gain switch or something? |
Luna,
I have the 3A and it is dead quiet. Indeed, it is as quiet as the best of the solid state pre-amps, but is far more musical than any solid state pre. I bet you have a noisy tube that is causing the sound that you are hearing. You will not need to replace the tube. You merely will need to swith its position with one of the other tubes. Call Keith and ask him which two tubes you should switch. He will know. In the past I developed a similar noise in my VTSP-3 after a year of use, and I checked with Keith. He told me to switch the positions of two tubes and that resulted in absolute silence--like magic. I asked about my replacing the formerly noisy tube and he told me no to do so. It said it had years of use left in it, but that it merely needed to be in a different location so that its noisy characteristic would not affect the sound of the pre-amp. Keith is a part genius and part magician. I have not encountered any issues and certainly no noise with the 3A. I bet your issue with background noise or "fuzz" is the product of a noisy tube. The 3A is a superlative pre-amp. Let me know what happens.
Sflazor |
I have the same sssss but I have had that on every piece of equipment I've owned. I chock it up to dirty power even with a power conditioner. |
I apologize for all of the mispellings in my prior post. In the future I will proof read my posts before hitting the submit key. Oh well....
Sflazor |
So, is everyone else leaving their's on 24/7? I never really shut mine off. |
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Thanks for the reply. I tried low-gain mod and it is almost as quiet as SS so it may not be the tubes. Mine 3A is brand new only 2 weeks old! I think it goes down to power supply or a mismatch with gain input from power amp. I have same problem with Conrad Johnson P350 and VTSP-2 but there is no low gain option to play with. Going back to 3A, it does have a much fuller body tan 2 and I have to madke do treatments to neutralise the bass. Anyway, my system has raised to another level and I have since been listening to it everynight, this is something I have not done for years! |
Hey guys. How about the AC Polarity switch? Do you mess with is much to see if it sounds better in the A or B position? |
When I first got my Herron 3A, I listened with the Polarity Switch in each of the A & B settings, determined which was the correct one for the right polarity and have not touched it in two years. I leave it on 24/7 unless I am going to be away from home for an extended period of time.
violin |
Guys,
I changed the stock fuses to Hi-FI gold tuning fuses on the power mains for pre and amps and boy did it make a difference. I'm shocked by the increase in bass not to mention sharper more defined images, deeper soundstage and lower floor noise. My next step will be to replace the main fuses on the grid with the new supreme fuses. This $150 change is far superior to $500 power cord change. |
I just had my Herron VTSP-3 upgraded to the VTSP-3A.
The improvements are quite significant, not subtle at all. I really found it hard to believe that the overall performance of my VTSP-3 could be improved this much as I was quite happy with the sound before.
The sound stage is now deeper and the overall sound is much richer with greater detail - the layers of the onion have been peeled away. It is as significant as going from a CD to an LP - improved resolution, sound staging, imaging and dynamics - an overall quantum leap ahead. With high resolution media my system now comes frighteningly close to simulating a live performance, a goal we all pursue. |
Alan9810,
It will only get better. Enjoy... |
I was just reading back through this thread. I saw a couple of comments (one from Rossop)on running it in high gain or low gain or full gain to half gain to get better range on the volume. Huh? How is that? There is not a gain switch or anything. What am I missing here?
The pre is still wonderful. I am so glad I bought this pre. I have changed everything in my system in the last year, even tried a couple of integrated's but with whatever configuration I put together, it never sounded as good with out the VTSP 3A in the mix. |
Kclone,
By pushing the phono button on the unit for a few seconds will switch the unit from low to high or vise versa. |
Cool Thanks Wig. I guess I should have read the manual some more. :). |
I soon will be the owner of a vtsp 1a 166 pre, how does it's sound compare to the vtsp 2 and 3 versions? |
IMO the 1A/166 is outstanding, having owned one. The 3A is able to move the listener to the 1st row from the 9th row with the 1A. I love being very close to the soloist, so the 3A is a blissfully satisfying musical component. If you enjoy sitting not all that far back at concerts, the 1A is absolutely the most muic for the money. I easily gave up my previous other manu., reference pre after a quarter century of loyalty (through a few previous pre mod. upgrades and one major model change). IMO Herron's preamps help define the ne plus ultra, I believe is a phrase not easily found in english, except for the Maine phrases " none bettah " and " finest kind " |
