ULTIMATE COMPONENTS

that his original combination linestage/ phono stage, the VTPH-1, was a tad shy in The Upgrade Train bass and dynamics, particularly with lead- ing edge transients: “Accurate bass response Herron Audio VTSP-1A Line Stage along with dynamic contrast and freedom BY JERRY KINDELA are qualities that can be realized… by opti- mizing the total system synergy (proper selection of cables and associated equip- ment, …impedance matching and room or many of us, the heart of a system resides in the line stage. treatment).” Isn’t this always the case? Theoretically, a line stage’s sole function is gain—without col- During the 1A’s residence, my system was updated, upgraded and so on. In the oration, without subtraction, without addition to the original final version it consisted of two front-ends, F signal. Like the heart itself, with its valves, chambers and convo- the Sony SCD-777ES SACD and the Ayre luted but symmetric construction, a line stage is supposed to work quiet- Acoustic D-1 DVD/CD players, both stellar ly in the background, regardless of the demands placed on it. Few line in performance (reviews and listening notes to come); Nordost Quattro Fils stages, however, quite deliver enough of the theoretical when confronted throughout and SPM Reference speaker with the practical. Keith Herron’s VTSP-1, as fan and reviewer kudos cables (which had been added to the exist- attested, came pretty damned close when it appeared on the high-end ing Kimber Bi-Focal XLs, Nordost Pulsar scene a couple of years ago. Points, assorted Echo Busters and Spendor SP 7/1 and FL10 speakers); Walker Audio directional bare-silver wire jumpers, front- Mid-way through last year, Boss Myles at speeding up the volume control servo. ed by two sets of Walker’s High Definition sent along an early production model used Says Keith, “The volume control consists of Links, and Walker Valid Points Super for review in Ultimate Audio. He wanted to a chip containing 128 precision resistors Tuning Kits. Each of the changes in the acquaint me with high end’s possibilities. along with 128 electronic switches. We entire system had been added incremen- More than acquaintance, the VTSP-1 pre- originally designed this section to reuse 14 tally, and sonics were assessed before any sented an opportunity to learn about the steps, by navigating through a transition further modification or addition was made. meaning of dynamics, instrument place- place we call the ‘downshift.’ As you lower As the change progressed, it became ment across and into the soundstage, the volume, the mechanism uses external increasingly clear that no matter what enveloping harmonic structures, the tim- electronic switches to drop the volume 14 transpired, the VTSP-1A’s utter neutrality bre of instruments, resolution, air and all dB and then boost it 13 dB. reflected only the evolutionary changes. the other elements that mesmerize the “As part of the upgrade process, we tried The VTSP-1A is a special creature indeed, ear/brain interface into a willing suspen- raising the control voltage on the electron- unwaveringly true to the source. sion of disbelief. Like an exceptional psy- ic switches, and to our surprise, this chotherapist, the VTSP-1 steadily reframed cleaned up the signal. We thought we were EASY LISTENING my perceptions, and continues to do so in clean before, we thought we’d done every- I began serious listening for this review its latest iteration, the VTSP-1A. thing by the rules, but we learned some- with several discs that would test the thing,” he laughs, bemused. Herron’s ability to disappear: Roy MOD SQUAD Keith Herron may be onto something Hargrove’s Crisol Habana (Verve The VTSP-1A incorporates, according to here. But your system from front to back 3145375632), Alice in Chains Unplugged Keith, 18 modifications or upgrades, and must be capable of detecting such sub- (Columbia CK 67703), and Uncommon Ritual, while a number of these are proprietary, a tleties, as even Keith himself opined in a featuring Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck and Mike significant number of changes were aimed “Manufacturer’s Response” to criticism Marshall (Sony Classical SK 62891).

56 • ULTIMATEAUDIO,SUMMER 2000 Hargrove’s compact disc, a bit on the dry side from lower midband upward, neverthe- less offers a unique opportunity to assess dynamics from slightly different perspec- tives of the same piece of music. “O My Seh Yeh,” an intricately layered, often powerful, often delicate Latin piece, both starts and closes the compact disc.The first iteration is song, the percussionists have chosen to powerful kick and tom drum rhythm, filled performed nearly half as quickly as the sec- focus more on the decay time of their with sizzling high hat and other metallic ond, which itself is well textured and lay- instruments. For example, not only can percussive flurries. Each of these has a ered, but somewhat differently. you distinguish the various notes on the beginning, middle and end, but most The Sony front-end resolving power— conga’s skin, but the “inside” reverberance notable is the resonant depth of the tom capable of delivering the demands present- as well, without missing the smaller but tom: The Herron reveals both the inside ed by this song’s complex interplay among significant percussive effects generated by and outside of the drum, and even though the multiple horns and saxophones, the the other players. the guitars and voices quickly fill the mix three-man percussion section, as well as Though I’ve never been a big lover of leading to a potential loss of the drum kit piano, bass and guitar—didn’t make the Alice in Chains, their Unplugged is some- detail, that does not happen. Herron flinch. The VTSP-1A relayed clearly thing else, particularly as a tool for assess- Dynamic? Indeed, though a tad light in and cleanly the intricate layering of various ing clarity of signal transfer. Recorded live upper octave air around the cymbal work, percussive effects, left to right from mid- to at the Majestic Theater at the Brooklyn but not so much that it detracts from near- rear-stage, along with a dry-sounding syn- Academy of Music, the compact disc has a realistic presentation. It’s certainly a hair copated kick drum clearly positioned deep big feel to it, in large part due to ambient cleaner than with the original linestage. center, whose echo nevertheless fills a sig- echo effects off the theater’s walls, nooks, nificant volume of space from left to right crannies and interstices. Relaying this GOING DEEP when the song opens. Each position relative acoustic, while maintaining even a mod- But what proved nettlesome to this point to the others remained solidly anchored in icum of appropriate soundstage layering, was the bass response. Down to upper its own fundamental envelope, yet more becomes a large task, yet the Sony details it midbass, the reproduction was clean and importantly, each instrument’s harmonics and Herron carries it along without con- tight. Various finger pluck and bowing arti- (to the degree possible) extended outward gealing a beat. facts, such as the distinct sound of rosined to embrace the harmonics of its neighbors Scott Olson’s guitar work has a holo- hair sweeping across the strings, were without fusing into undifferentiated sound. graphic texture to it, replete with the readily apparent. Below that, it was a dif- This ability on the Herron’s part to buzzing of strings from his deft fret work. ferent story—not necessarily bloat, but an retain instrumental timbres and textures More importantly, the Herron allows the accented roundness, a bit too much extended to the massed horn sections, direction of his strumming strokes to pass ripeness for my taste. As configured, my whether those on the left or right sections through unhampered, uncolored, whether system is capable of delivering nearly of the stage—a very difficult trick to with gravity or upward against it: You can faithfully (just a pinch of softness, but accomplish—and to the guitar slicing readily hear the first note or two of the nothing egregious) almost down to the quick arpeggios and complex chord pro- chord, which is the cue. The Herron main- open E bass string, roughly 40 cycles. The gressions closer to the right speaker. The tains such clarity so well that mere sound is system will go lower, but with added Herron’s ability to place instruments while elevated to music, even music one might roundness to the bass lines. maintaining clear musical and harmonic not always appreciate under other circum- Was it the Herron, or was this a problem perspective allows one to enjoy Latin stances. Take Layne Staley’s voice as anoth- with the engineering or mastering side? music’s complexity, without having to er example. While its style may best be Edgar Myer’s bass playing on Uncommon work at listening into the mix. In fact, described as nasal in nature, coming from Ritual came through without a hitch, prov- Herron’s non-interference, merely its neu- the larynx, and its range rather limited, ing that perhaps the earlier compact discs tral gain, allows you readily to hear such through the Herron Layne’s voice assumes were true to Red Book form. The Herron things as a horn entering a nano-beat a more natural, more fleshed-out feel. relayed the transient response of Myer’s before the rest of the section, or to be able In college Keith Herron, who came from bass, which is recorded a tad on the dry to note that each horn has its own brassy an instrument-playing family, was a drum- side (arguably the result of Sony’s 20-bit or reedy signature, even when several are mer in a small group of the Brubeck style. single-bit-mapping technology), as quickly playing the same line simultaneously. This becomes evident, in some counterin- and cleanly as the higher octave instru- On the second iteration of “O My Seh tuitive fashion, when you hear how well ments of Bela Fleck on banjos and Mike Yeh,” the tempo increases significantly, yet the Herron deals with drum kits, their Marshall on assorted mandolin-family one can still hear identically into the mix, dynamic power and their infinite potential variants. Meyer’s “Chance Meeting” reflect- the Herron keeping time, and resolution as for delicious variety. To understand, all ed particularly well how the Herron man- well, with the time change. The Herron’s you’ve got to do is listen to the introduc- ages to maintain a clear separation resolving power is such, that it’s a simple tion to Alice in Chains’ “No Excuses.” Sean between Fleck’s banjo and Meyer’s incredi- aural act to note that on this version of the Kinney sets up the song’s unity with a ble bowing. Fleck, positioned directly in

ULTIMATEAUDIO,SUMMER 2000 • 57 Herron front of Meyer, manages to flourish TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS between lightning-fast runs and slower individual note lines, while Meyer counter- he rigid circuit board’s layout is pristine and uncluttered, reflecting the 1000 hours points an alternate melody line. The of development time devoted to building a cross-talk-free environment. Keith Herron manages to retain the position, the Herron avoids hand-wiring, saying that this often leads to inconsistent results amplitude and the texture of the respec- T from unit to unit. The bulk of the 1A’s 18 changes went toward improving dynam- tive instruments, even when both are play- ics, bass response and transparency by speeding up the operation of the unique volume ing dizzyingly fast, one stacked directly in control servo (see article for Keith Herron’s in-depth explanation). Additional work went front of the other. The Herron does not into lowering distortion in the matched quad of grey-plate Sovtek 6922s, riding atop meld the overtones nor soften the initial board-mounted porcelain tube sockets. transient response of either instrument; it The tube circuit is unique, according to Herron: “One section of one of the two tubes merely lets them through. The mark of an per channel is used as a gain cell, running wide open. There’s a method of running the extremely competent linestage is the abili- 6922, minus the use of an external plate resistor, that cancels distortion. This approach ty to reveal the most minute detail in allows you to ‘free run’ the tube at full natural gain, called the mu, and that’s what sounds appropriate time, an especially difficult best. The other triode per channel, operating as infinite resistance, supplies current to the task when confronted with the click of a gain. In effect, this approach cancels out the nonlinearities in transconductance and plate pick attacking the strings of a banjo in resistance.” rapid succession, while a bass string is The VTSP-1A, with 72,000 µF of storage capacity, allows for high voltage to be devel- bent in a glissando, all in the midst of an oped through a servo-driven multiplier. It also has four levels of regulation, allowing the orgy of complex note structures. And the linestage to run from 80-140 volts at 50-60 Hz. Keith cautions against coupling the VTSP- Herron VTSP-1A is that good. 1A into an AC sine wave regenerator run at higher Hz settings: “In an effort to eliminate Much of the preceding was noted while distortion causing harmonics to come off the powerline, our circuits are designed to listening to Sony’s second generation ignore high frequencies that are created by a sine-wave regenerator. Under such condi- 777ES SACD player, but I had not expected tions, our unit will simply not start up.” For maximum benefit to be realized from the VTSP- what was possible in replay—or how the 1A careful impedance matching between pieces of equipment, especially the amplifier, utilitarian-looking Herron VTSP-1A could must be considered: Power amplifiers with an input impedance below 20 K will not repro- truly respond—until I ran the suite of discs duce a full-sounding bass. through the Ayre D-1. More air and exten- Herron’s web site, www.herronaudio.com, breaks down the upgrade policy pricing sion, more space, cleaner delineation of structure. Keith notes that consumers who purchased the VTSP-1 after January 1, 2000 will harmonic structures, improved staging pay only shipping costs for an upgrade. and resolution, better, tighter yet fuller bass—in fact, more of everything. Sure, Walker’s lead-filled pucks, considerably deep and across the entire expanse much of it was subtle, yet palpably so, but cleaned up the resolving power of the between, and often outside the borders of, I learned an invaluable audio lesson linestage, whose chassis resonates and the speakers. And, it does this so matter- (again, damn it!) in the process: You don’t buzzes somewhat to the slightest tap of of-factly—without traditional tube col- know what’s in the way of the signal until the finger (in all fairness, roughly one-third oration—that you’d swear you were dealing what’s there is removed. In this case, it of the chassis top must be vented to pre- with solid-state. Is it better than the origi- was a slight grain and distortion through- vent the 6922’s from overheating, but the nal version? Yes. out the frequency range, a grain that with- venting surely leads to increased vibra- Now you tell me whether that’s not how holds the ultimate in reproduction reality tion). And finally, while Keith has worked you’d like the heart of your system to func- (but so it should be, considering the Ayre hard to eliminate the occasional but mild- tion—unless, of course, you’re unsure costs over $8,000, compared to the mid- ly noticeable rasp when turning down the whether you want to insert the VTSP-1A’s $3K Sony). What is key here, however, is volume (is this where the downshift is ruthless ability to reveal both the good and the Herron VTSP-1A’s ability to act as the engaged?), it’s still there, though even less the bad of your system? t proverbial, and I hate writing this, apparent and occurring less frequently. “straight-wire gain:” The Herron gives you Please note, you hear the effect—notice- þHerron Audio VTSP-1A Line Stage. Herron Audio, what you put into it, period. able at the 8:30 position, rather than at 9:30 12685 Dorsett Road, Suite 138, St. Louis, MO in the original version—when the music 63043. Tel.: (314) 434-5416. Fax: (314) 434-6629. SPLITTING SONIC HAIRS isn’t playing. Web site: www.herronaudio.com. Designer: Keith Nits? To be sure. For starters, there’s no Minor nits aside, the Herron VTSP-1A, Herron. Description: Pure tube linestage, no global remote. Keith Herron believes that a with over 1,000 hours of circuit design time feedback. Tube complement: 4 x Sovtek grey-plate remote circuit would hurt his linestage’s to eliminate cross-talk at every possible 6922s. Frequency response: 1 Hz to beyond 100 ability to remain neutral, but nevertheless electronic cusp and juncture, is as distor- kHz; 20 Hz to 20 kHz ± 0.1 dB. Gain: 14 dB. Input some higher-priced (that’s an important tion free as any component I’ve heard to impedance: 100 K. Output impedance: 100 Ohms. 1 point) linestages manage the trick. Perhaps date. This exquisitely linear linestage Detachable AC cord: Yes. Dimensions: 19 x 3 /2 x 10 more significant is the resonant quality of retains whatever the source transmits, inches (w x h x d). Weight: 16 lbs. Price: $3,995 the chassis. Isolation on Nordost Pulsar keeping the material intact in a phase- (check web site for upgrade pricing). Points and serious mass loading, via coherent, timbrally accurate soundscape

58 • ULTIMATEAUDIO,SUMMER 2000