Any Herron VTPH-2 Phono Stage Owners out there?

Bdp24, OK, but Mr Herron did not originate the notion of un-loading MCs (by using a high value load resistor). Far from it. I doubt he would claim this idea for himself in the first place. Allen Wright (of Vacuum State), JCarr (Lyra), and Ralph Karsten (Atma-sphere) are just 3 others who advocate this approach. And I am sure none of them would claim to be the first to think of it, either. This is not to say that Keith Herron is not a smart guy.

Shows what I know! It's the first I heard of it, but I don't follow developments in the world of MC's. ALL those guys named are brilliant, glad every one of them is working in the field of our passion. Music in our homes at our whim---how fortunate are we to live in such times! When I listen to Bach and the others whose manuscripts have survived through the centuries, I always marvel at the fact that only the privileged wealthy heard their music when it was new, and often only once. We peasants (speaking for myself ;-) can hear their masterpieces any time we want, in our own homes. Not even a King could do that!

I agree. We're very fortunate in that regard.
I recently found and purchased an Ortofon MC2000 cartridge. When I first auditioned it, I neglected to note that my Atma-sphere MP1 was set for a 47K load on the cartridge, which would never have been my first choice for the MC2000, since it has 3 ohms internal resistance. However, I was blown away by the sound; it was very very "open" and wide in bandwidth and very dynamic. After playing 2 or 3 LPs, I realized my "error", and I re-set the load to 100R. The MC2000 still sounded excellent, but much of the magic was gone. Prior to this experience, I had not even investigated the possibility of loading LOMCs in this manner; now I cannot wait to try it with some others I own.

Lew, if you do experiment with "infinite" loading for other MCs, may I suggest you begin a new thread if you write up your results? I expect there will be enough interest to warrant a new heading of its own.

Thanks

Pryso - agreed. And results will probably vary by cartridge.