I have been lucky enough to have heard 5 pairs of YH-1000. It is not like your typical modern headphone, most of which I find too bright and trebly (and often siblant). Quite a lot of people *might* find the YH-1000 a bit dark for their tastes. But for me this is the headphone to fit my own personal taste.
I will say it may not perform technically the best in the sense of extreme extentions of the freq spectrum, but what it does posess is an incredible emotional presentation, great timing and lively feeling to any song.
Vocal presentation are second to none for my tastes, vocals are SO seductive on these.
Comfort wise these are supra-aural so to that end I dont find them incredibly comfy, but if you like supra aural, they are very comfy. The headband has great comfort. It is a bit heavy though.
Since it is so old , usually the pleather will have worn off the earpads, which makes it less bassy and dark than stock, but I feel this actually enhances the sound rather than make it worse. Its actually what gives it some of the magic in my opinion.
Unfortunately it is very hard to get hold of, and a large proportion of examples have corrosion to the drivers over the decades. Also you need to be careful handling them as the struts (the joint that holds the cup to the headband) is not as strong as it really should be.
Overall my favourite and #1 headphone of the many I have had the pleasure of hearing.
