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

I have had my VTPH 2 ( now upgraded to 2A) for a few years now.   It  does not seem to be better for any particular type of music in my experience. I listen to jazz, rock, pop, Acoustic, and world music. It excels with every type of music I play. It’s truly a pleasure to listen to.  It presents the music very organically, and is very involving. Plenty of detail without being overly analytical and a very natural tone.  And, Keith Herron provides the best customer service I have ever experienced. 

Yes I forgot to mention I listen to a range of music, but especially a lot of heavy metal! The Herron is certainly an all-genre musical instrument. And yes, A++ on dealing with Keith. Call him up if you’re in this price range for a Phono stage!

This talk makes me worry about buying this phono?

I have read so many good things, too many good things honestly but nothing is perfect.

One person didn't like it that much for his taste and now it must be or could be something else in his system like his speakers or preamp because it could not be this preamp?.

Maybe he just doesn't like it as much as something else to his ears regardless of system matching. That makes perfect sense to me for any audio product. He likes a different sounding leading edge or transients for his taste. I love to hear that. Means its a real product not just a fanboy based niche product like Merlin speakers. 

I have read this type of universal love for Merlin speakers with the rabbit loyal following and I bought a pair and wasn't overly impressed. I was like what was all that I read. Nice solid speaker for sure and better then average and in some way really good but man reading about them over and over you think they are the greatest ever in the history of the world. This phono has been giving me that vibe! 

Trust me I am not bad mouthing this product this is more in general and not saying this pre is like Merlin speakers either but when anything can do no wrong that makes me nervous. Especially when I am very seriously considering buying one. A seller reached out to me tonight.

Some people like the dry, analytical sound of some SS preamps for the super high detail and impact and super precise image so why would they love a great tube pre? 

Unless this pre does that also just like a dry, etched SS preamp with low end slam that many people love? Maybe it is the perfect phono that will adapt to any system and know the person's likes and become a chameleon? If that is the case I would pay dearly for that...  

This is not a shot anyone that owns and loves these and has written about them. I appreciate that but man this is the highest rated owner spoken about phono product anywhere by anyone.

We don't all get to try them in our system before we buy and we all know that is best to do. We look out there for people's thought and feedback and try to make the best informed decision we can with the resources available to us at the time. I guess its better than negative feedback but not sure how objective any of it is other than it has to be one dam good phonostage.  

 

The Herron VTPH-2A is a superb phono stage, no doubt about it, but the way some owners make it out to be the Non Plus Ultra of phono stages is frankly just silly. A little sobriety and a little less fanboi talk would be seemly.

Personally I had a VTPH-2A on extended loan and auditioning a while back, and yet I ended up buying an Allnic H-1202. Is that the best phono stage in the world then? No, of course it’s not.However, barring any super deals being available to you on more elevated stuff, I’m pretty confident that the Herron and the Allnic are the two best phono stages available at relatively reasonable prices.

Are they the equals of the likes of the Manley Steelhead or the Aestetix Io? No they’re not, but they come uncomfortably close at a fraction of the price. And if you’re someone who either can’t or won’t shell out for the latter, but still want a superb phono stage based on tubes, then they’re both frankly no-brainers.

Don't overthink it.
The VTPH-2A a great phono stage, very neutral with traits of SS and tubes thanks to the JFET MC stage (I only have MC cartridges). I find I do still prefer my VAC Renaissance SE phono stage in the main system (pure tubes but must use a SUT for MC); at more than 3x the cost of a Herron it adds a dash of "romantic" tube sound but also yields all the details and layers of music, can rock too, and simply makes music have more presence and come that much more alive. That's what money buys (for my ears), and I'm happy to pay it in this case. 

Now one honest annoyance I've found with the VTPH-2A is how far the grounding lug is from the MM inputs. This has made it difficult for me to achieve an external SUT connection (bypassing the JFET stage) without hum. I haven't been able to get that setup right yet, but when I do I strongly suspect I'll prefer the fatter tone imparted by SUT's like Bob's Devices Sky or EAR MC-3 vs the JFET stage.