First impression: Herron VTPH-2A phono preamp

if he says that 20K is a bare minimum

He’s quoting, like me saying 47k and 100k is even better is the figure for the Lightspeed to see, when in fact 25kohm is the min correct figure as measured and listened too by our 50 strong audio group, as that gives a 1:10 ratio as the max output impedance of a 10k volume control is 2.5k, were just taking in any unforeseen circumstances like weird cables etc.

We’ll see when Rob67 reports on what he heard, as for now as I said before lesser phono stages are sounding great into this kind of load.

Al do your ears a favour, ditch the dinosaur if you have the gain, and "not" listen to the noise floor of your preamps output gain stage, you’ll be amazed just how black the background of vinyl can sound if you utilise all the phono stage’s gain instead.
He’s given you massive 64db or 69db of gain, use it, some poor saps only get 35db of gain with their phono stages and they have to listen to the preamps output gain stage’s noise.

Cheers George

He’s given you massive 64db or 69db of gain, use it, some poor saps only get 35db of gain with their phono stages and they have to listen to the preamps output gain stage’s noise.

Hi George,

I’m not sure you’re realizing that the 64 or 69 db of gain is just for use with low output cartridges, primarily low output moving coil cartridges. Moving magnet or high output moving coil or high output moving iron cartridges are connected to a different input of the phono stage, which provides either 43 or 48 db of gain depending on the version of the phono stage.

64 db of gain is not "massive," it is an amount that is appropriate for the majority of low output moving coil cartridges. While 35 or 43 or 48 db are reasonable figures for use with most high output cartridges. Using 64 db of gain with a moving magnet cartridge would most likely result in an overload condition.

Best regards,

-- Al

Al, like I said before some of my customers with MC and 48db phono stages are having no problem, around 2pm on the VC, but then they have "normal" gain poweramps and speakers that are efficient.
If you run one of say Nelson’s low gain F series amps or similar then yes I agree there could be gain issues, lets wait and see what Rob67 has to report he has a MC that is a $10kusd Lyra, and his amp and speakers are in the "normal" rage of things.

BTW: For normal listening levels in your setup where is your vc positioned on your active pre and do you know it’s gain? Does it have a log pot? And what is the gain of your amp and efficiency of your speakers?

Cheers George

@professorsvsu. Glad you’re enjoying your Herron phono stage. I owned one about a decade ago and loved it. 

Thanks celander, I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm only two days into the VTPH-2A experience and 100% sold out on the product. I'm 64 and have to admit that some of the vinyl I've listened to the past few days has made me as giddy as a kid. At least 50 years of listening to vinyl and I've never heard anything this good.

I had a few brief e-mails with Keith Herron since I purchased the preamp. In complete honesty and at the risk of sounding hokey, I believe he's invested part of his soul into what he's doing and it shows. I wish his company a large measure of success and have no reservations so far giving the VTPH-2A a five star, A+ rating.