Yamamoto Sound Craft HA-02 - Page 50

soon to be joining team ha-02.. would the rs-1's work fine with it or it'd be better to invest a pair of ATH woodies for the amp?

I'd give the RS1s a try first if you have a pair.
They work well with the Yamamoto, not quite the soundstage that you get with the closed AT woodies but you dont expect that from a Grado(gs1000 excepted).

Maybe I should have said what is the common practice not best practice.

Same.

I thought Yamamoto recommended not having headphones and speakers connected at the same time.

I'd listen to the RS-1's first, with the Yamamoto, before deciding to get ATH W1000's. After Listening, and you still want ATH's, well ... , it is your wallet after all ... ,

The RS-1's should work well with the HA-02, is what I'm saying I guess ...

Well, I do turn the volume down, before pulling the plug, but I don't think excessive switching on/off of the amp is good for it either ...

Having a pair of speakers connected could affect the sound due to the load on the amp ...

When he is ready, a comparison of all his amps, would be appreciated, as he has a collection of worthy amps ...

Unplugging and plugging in headphones can cause a momentary short circuit at the output, so you don't want much current flowing when this happens. You can either turn down the volume to minimum or pause the source. I usually do the later so I don't have to work at finding the same volume again.

That could work as well, except, if t he phones being compared are of different efficiencies ...

Yamamoto HA-02 comparison...

I have the Yamamoto HA-02, Berning micro-ZOTL and AT-HA5000 along with the Lavry DA10 headamp and the Xin Reference (22k-mF version with quarter plugs). I may not get to all of these but my primary interest is in the first three. This review will have a specific focus on the Yamamoto since it is new to me. My Yamamoto has over 150 hours on it before beginning this particular set of comparisons. All the other amps have many hours and are well used. All music is feed from FLAC files coming off my computer using the M-Audiophile USB (latest drivers from M-Audio) for the SPDIF feed via Grand Enigma XLR female to RCA 75 ohm cables into my outboard Lavry DA10 used with a setting of CrystalLock. The Lavry feeds an ampBoxAudio Line Router and it feeds Blue Jean RCA Audio LC-1 Stereo Audio Cables to each of the three primary amps being tested. The Ultrasone Edition 9 is stock all the way with plenty of hours on them. Every once in a while I placed my ATH-ANC7s into the mix just to give me some perspective of what these can do with a lower level headphone than the UE9.

First off, any of the three amps are great with my Ultrasone Edition 9s (UE9). My capacity to distinguish differences is being pushed to distinguish the differences in these three amps, but I think the differences that I note below are real. All amplifiers were set to 75dB using the same test tones (200 and 190 Hz recorded at -12dB) using a Radio Shack sound meter and a card board with a hole laying this across the ear piece of the UE9. Initially during this review I was hot plugging between different amps but finally came upon ideal from a post on Head-Fi that suggested that muting tracks before hot plugging was a better solution.

Of the music I listen to, I found that most country music provides almost no dynamics since setting it at 75 dB all music within a track stayed within 5 dB of that setting when back-testing the music to the initial settings. Therefore, I will not provide any results for country music. There is a lot of modern music that suffers from this same problem and the resulting lack of being musical for no having any dynamic range. This type of music is mixed to be played back in a loud car traveling at speed or in a bar where the background noise if very loud. Of course there are exceptions such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and the very well recorded and mixed Stardust by Willie Nelson.

Female Vocalist:…….Renee Olstead, Rebecca Pidgen, Kimiko Itoh

Renee Olstead's Summertime is simply sensuous with anything I use. But the Yamamoto just puts me closer to the music in everyway. Here I go again with a subjective, emotional evaluation not providing seemingly objective data. Here the AT-HA5000 vocal presentation comes nearest to the Yamamoto without surpassing it. The HA5000 presents Renee’s voice very well. Width of sound presentation is a major factor with the Yamamoto and the micro-ZOTL. Clarity is greatest with both of the tubes amps. My emotional response is greatest with the Yamamoto, where the music just touches me more.

Rebecca Pidgen’s Spanish Harlem. The individual musical instruments that accompany her in this vocal has a presence that has to be heard…The echo’s on the local of the recording and the instruments bouncing off the walls provide an ambiance that I really enjoy when listening to this track. Here I think the micro-ZOTL and Yamamoto are a close match with the HA5000 coming in behind.

Another sensuous vocal artist is Kimiko Itoh. Listening to her rendition of “When I Fall In Love” is simply beautiful music. Here the Yamamoto out classes the micro-ZOTL in presenting Kimido’s voice…I love it…The musical complement is presented best with the Yamamoto with its timber, clarity, depth and width of the sound. The timber of the HA5000 again allows Kimido’s voice to sound near the Yamamoto’s presentation.

All of these amps do very well on the female voice, but my pleasure is greatest from the Yamamoto.

Male Vocalist: Gosh Groban, Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole, Big-T

Male vocals such as Gosh Groban are very wide and emotional with the Yamamoto. The Yamamoto seems to be able to emote more feeling than any of the others and both of those are very good in this capacity. The guitar in “Home to Stay” is beautiful complimenting Gosh’s vocal. “Let Me Fall” almost brings you to cry when hearing it out of the Yamamoto. But when I go to the micro-ZOTL and HA5000 I can’t get over the emotional characteristics each provides while I listen. The micro-ZOTL and HA5000, while not as great as the Yamamoto, are certainly very good. The Yamamoto just gives it a little bit more reality in the dynamics.

Continuing on with another male vocalist, IZ’s Facing the Future. I get the same results of emotional highs and lows listening to Kaulana Kawaihae. The voice decays as if I were setting right in front listening to him singing. WOW….again.

Big-T and his Badda Bing big band singing “Girl From Ipanema” is smooth and precise in detail. The instruments playing from his big band are all very spread out just like on a stage…..beautiful voice and instrumental. Cymbals have a timbre and a mixing that brings them into the music much more than on most audio recordings. The Yamamoto again brings everything into play. The micro-ZOTL has most of it but just not as smooth to my hearing. While the HA5000 seems to just power itself through Big-Ts music.

Miscellaneous Genre: Van Canto, Hiroshima, Earl Kluge

How about a little Van Canto, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F9aJuHJE80 , or their home page: http://vancanto.de/ . This is “Hero-Metal A-Capella” with only the double drummer coming into play to provide those very fast petal drum kicks that metal is known for. The Yamamoto could be the best thing that happened to acapella music if you really enjoy this type. The harmony in this music is very surprising. Again all three of these great amplifiers perform well with this genre.

Jazz with a little Japanese sound from Hiroshima is one of my favorites. Here all three are very satisfying to me. Again the Yamamoto brings just a little more to the table compared with the others. Tracks “Viven” and “Sanju” from their Bridge CD are two test tracks that I use for comparison. I have always enjoyed the way Hiroshima brings the harp into play with the guitar, piano and drums in their music which provides an emotional high.

Now for some jazz by Earl Kluge, “Whispers and Promises”….With this music the amps come a bit nearer to each other while maintaining their essential differences noted above. The decay/flux of the guitar strings is especially clear with the Yamamoto. This decay/flux extension from the Yamamoto is a feature that is especially made clear when using the UE9s.

Brucker’s Celibidach (Bruckner: Symphony No.4) The horns in the four track on this CD are very revealing of the amplification. With this CD both the Yamamoto HA-02 and the Berning micro-ZOTL gives me simply two different presentations and both are very find. I can’t say which one is better since I enjoy listening to both of them. The HA5000 is also very good and detailed with this one. So if I had to choose which one it would be based on what type of presentation I wanted to here. No winners here.

Winston’s December is one of the best recorded musical pieces that I have and it just showcases the best of the Yamamoto’s ability to provide the space and timbre of the real piano as if I was the setting there playing. Winston’s music is simply beautiful music. The other two amps do very well but the HA-02 just does it better.

Demo tracks from the Ultrasone CD:

With my Ultrasone Edition 9s the first two tracks (Silequd and Auf Geht's Ab Geht's) of my Ultrazone CD indicates that that Yamamoto wins out over both the AT-HA5000 and the Berning micro-ZOTL in every way. The HA5000 has a strong bass but I think the Yamamoto shows that strength to be in the mid bass where the Yamamoto presents its strength over the whole bass range. Timbre on the Yamamoto is just more right on target over the HA5000 or ZOTL. The ZOTL and Yamamoto have a clarity that the HA5000 can not keep up with. Ave Verum Corpus, choral with a pipe organ music, provides an environment of space to test soundstage. This one helps me understand the expansiveness of the Yamamoto HA-02. With this CD on the Rondo Allegro track, the piano timbre is about equal on both the HA-02 and the ZOTL besting the HA5000 by a slight amount.

Summary:

The Yamamoto along with the Ultrasone Edition 9 presents music with such clarity, detail, precision, and air and instrument separation with just the right timbre as to be stunning. I spoke little of the bass production of the Yamamoto above but this is one area where the Yamamoto controls the low impedance UE9 masterfully. Comparing the Berning micro-ZOTL with the Yamamoto, it is apparent that the Yamamoto brings the mid-range more forward with vocals and with vocals you this is very desirable. I think that the Yamamoto has a warmer sound while the micro-ZOTL would be considered more neutral. I think this shows the type of balance between these two amps where the Yamamoto HA-02 is focused on detail in the mid-range and the micro-ZOTL has a more neutral sound up and down which could be interpreted as being light in some areas. To help in understanding this comparison I read somewhere where someone during a concert noted that the high frequencies seem a bit muted and when he got home the sound was more detailed than the concert especially in the upper mids and high frequencies. He then cupped his hands around his ears and listened to his home system. With cupping his hands over his ears the sound came nearer to the presentation in the concert. The Yamamoto would give you more of the concert sound I think while the micro-ZOTL would be more like the home high end stereo system. These two amps compliment each other very well. The warmth of the HA-02 helps in the emotional presentation of this amp.

Considering that all three amps are so close in sound quality the following comparison could almost be called a fools errand but I have never let this stop me before, so here is my fool’s errand. Overall, if I would assign a range between 1 and 10 to each of these amps with a 10 to the best and 1 to the lowest I would have to give the Yamamoto the 10 and the HA5000 the 1 while the Berning micro-ZOTL would come in somewhere around 5-6. If I were to place the Xin Reference and Lavry DA10 headamp into the mix the range would be the DA10 having the one and the Reference maybe a 1-2 range. Within this picture the HA5000 would be maybe a 4-5 and the micro-ZOTL would be 7-8 with the Yamamoto being the 10. With my tube amps (MICRO-ZOTL and Yamamoto) there is no tube sound that I can perceive, just plenty of detail and even more than my solid state Audio Technica AT-HA5000. The Yamamoto’s detail is just as precise as the micro-ZOTL while having a better timbre. This difference is probably related to the type of tubes in use. I could even talk myself into thinking that I could tell the difference in the harmonics of the tube amps with the Yamamoto being just a little more musical.

All five of these amps are very good. Some are just better than others while some are better with different genres of music. The Yamamoto seems to trump all contenders at some level when using the UE9 headphone. The Yamamoto was able to make the most out of the ATH-ANC7s by a large extent. So I think the Yamamoto has great control over the headphone drivers. This actually surprised me since I thought that the micro-ZOTL would have the advantages when it came to driver control. Maybe I just have it backwards and enjoy the particular control the Yamamoto has over the headphone driver.

If there are contradictions within this evaluation it is only because of my own limitations and the quality of the components being evaluated being so near to each other. I could listen one time and say WOW with one amp and then at another time do the same thing with another amp. I hope you can over-look any contradictions you think you read within this evaluation.

Allow me one more comment on the Berning micro-ZOTL. This amp has such a remarkable topology as to be unique.

Amplifiers:

Yamamoto HA-02 with the stock WE408a tubes
Berning micro-ZOTL with Sylvania 12AX7 tubes and EH 6SN7 tubes.
AT-HA5000 with over a year of listening pleasure.
Xin Reference (22k mF cap and quarter plugs)
Lavry DA10 with CrystalLock setting engaged

Headphones:

Ultrasone Edition 9
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 (sometimes)

Great writeup slwiser.

Steve, great write up. The ZOTL will improve in low bass if Ken-Rad 6SN7 is used instead of EH tubes. As you stated, ZOTL topology is very unique. I am looking forward auditioning your Yammy during our micro-meet Who knows...if I like (love) it...I might buy two and make it balanced Yammy

What he said

It makes me very keen to try the UE9's

slwiser: x2 for the great write up, good to hear u think the yammy come up on top on most aspect.
gav: warwick from pure music group have the ue9 for special price, if u want to upgrade to the ue9 and get rid of your w5000, i will buy it off from your hand