Herron VTSP-3A

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.