PH12 kudos

Yesterday a fellow brought over to the house a Well Tempered Reference turntable with a Delos cartridge. My own table is a Linn LP12, Rega RB300 arm, Denon DL110 cartridge. I've been considering moving on from the Linn and wanted to hear it next to some other gear. The WTT and Delos combo would run me about $3000, which is definitely outside my budget. It sounded great, but is far too tweaky for my taste, so I'm staying with the Linn for the moment.

The Delos cartridge has a lower output than my Denon. The fellow who brought it over runs a Ray Samuels phono preamp at home but was curious as to what I was running. His total system cost is probably up around $35k or so.

I have an SP13 preamp with a PH12 phono stage in it. He was truly astonished to hear how quiet the SP13/PH12 was as well as how good it sounded.

So kudos to VTA! It made a big impression on at least one well-heeled audiophile.

Russ

Good story. I also have the SP13/PH12. Its the best sounding preamp I've ever owned. How did the WTT/Delos sound compared to your Linn/Denon?

Wayne

wgallupe wrote:Good story. I also have the SP13/PH12. Its the best sounding preamp I've ever owned. How did the WTT/Delos sound compared to your Linn/Denon?

Wayne

It was very interesting.  I've never had the opportunity to put my pedestrian LP12/RB300/Denon combo up against another table.

Clearly the WTT combo outperformed the LP12, but not by as much as you'd expect for something valued at nearly 3 times what the LP12 would be. On the used market, the WTT combo could be expected to go for somewhere around $3000. This LP12 combo would likely sell at $1100.
We listened to a Victor Feldman recording (vibes, upright string bass and drums). On the LP12, the vibes tended to have a somewhat spitting sound, but not so on the WTT. Wesla Whitfield's voice was just a bit more relaxed and natural on the WTT. String bass was better controlled on the deep end. Piano attacks were also better controlled on the WTT.

So it was a clear winner, but is it worth nearly 3 times the price of the LP12? Can I be happy with the LP12? These are all very interesting questions and I'll have answers after more research.

thanks for the comments Rusty, the PH12 is an absolute steal and solid performer, for those it the know it's basically the basic guts of the high-end PH16.
Of course the SP13 is one of THE finest tube preamps available for under $5000, basically identical to the SP14 except for the smaller tubes used.

tubes4hifi wrote:thanks for the comments Rusty, the PH12 is an absolute steal and solid performer, for those it the know it's basically the basic guts of the high-end PH16.
Of course the SP13 is one of THE finest tube preamps available for under $5000, basically identical to the SP14 except for the smaller tubes used.

My visitor was someone who has the financial resource to own gear that is truly top-notch. His loudspeakers were the top-o-the-line KEF before the blades came out. That's major $$$ to me. He's the kind of guy who buys Stereophile Class A rated gear. He said that my rig with the SP13/PH12 and Linkwitz Orion loudspeaker system were of Reference Quality, a compliment he doesn't readily hand out.

Thanks again Roy for a great preamp!