ludoo
1000+ Head-Fier
Over in the ortho thread some of us have developed a real affection for the Yamaha house sound, which usually involves sweet mids and a warm, full sound. It was probably inevitable then that sooner or later one of us decided to investigate the current Yamaha lineup of dynamic phones.
Kabeer got the idea last night and shared it with me on IM, pointing me to a few glowing user comments about the Yamaha RH-5ma, mainly from studio people using them for their daily work. I got curious too, so when we found a local music store selling them for 39 euros it did not take me long before deciding to buy a pair. I went there today and, for once, I have to say it's great to be able to enter a store, pick a box from a wall lined up with tens of them, pay at the counter, and get back home with a new, mint pair of headphones instead of hunting for weeks or months on ebay for old phones, often in awful condition.
I got home, opened the box, and found this inside (pictured next to their orthodynamic ancestors, the Yamaha HP-3)
Smallish semi-closed (vented) phones, with a choice of materials that reminds of the cheap orthodynamic models of the past, and a nice padded headband which is the most comfortable I've seen on cheapish phones.
I connected them to my Starving Student, and put them on without expecting much. And I'm still here about 3 hours later listening to music.
The first thing I noticed as soon as music started playing was bass: big, full, deep, but not bloated or cavernous. And definitely not masking the other frequencies: the RH-5ma have a well balanced sound, with very clear treble and warm, upfront, sweet, full-bodied mids. They are also very fast and detailed for dynamic phones.
I did a quick comparison against my HP-3, and my beloved little orthos sounded thin and somewhat sterile after the RH-5ma. They definitely are not, but the RH5 have such body to their sound that the transition from one to the other is shocking. I then pitched them against my modded and recabled iGrados, and the RH-5ma did sound much better: the iGrados sounded veiled, with distant and lifeless mids, and overemphasized treble details.
The only fault I'm finding with the RH-5ma is their so-so rendering of some acoustic music. I don't know if it's a fault of the specific tracks I listened to, or their full-bodied sound that does not have the delicate touch required for some acoustic instruments. Will investigate more, meanwhile I'm enjoying them a lot with all my other tracks.
I am sure there's a wow factor in play here, and my affection for Yamaha products might make me a bit overenthusiastic, but these are seriously good sounding phones, unbelievably so for their 39 euros price tag. I think that if I had bought them one year ago, I might have saved myself quite a bit of money spent on crappy, low or mid end dynamics.
Kabeer is hunting down a pair too, so he might be able to post his impressions in the near future.
Kabeer got the idea last night and shared it with me on IM, pointing me to a few glowing user comments about the Yamaha RH-5ma, mainly from studio people using them for their daily work. I got curious too, so when we found a local music store selling them for 39 euros it did not take me long before deciding to buy a pair. I went there today and, for once, I have to say it's great to be able to enter a store, pick a box from a wall lined up with tens of them, pay at the counter, and get back home with a new, mint pair of headphones instead of hunting for weeks or months on ebay for old phones, often in awful condition.
I got home, opened the box, and found this inside (pictured next to their orthodynamic ancestors, the Yamaha HP-3)
Smallish semi-closed (vented) phones, with a choice of materials that reminds of the cheap orthodynamic models of the past, and a nice padded headband which is the most comfortable I've seen on cheapish phones.
I connected them to my Starving Student, and put them on without expecting much. And I'm still here about 3 hours later listening to music.
The first thing I noticed as soon as music started playing was bass: big, full, deep, but not bloated or cavernous. And definitely not masking the other frequencies: the RH-5ma have a well balanced sound, with very clear treble and warm, upfront, sweet, full-bodied mids. They are also very fast and detailed for dynamic phones.
I did a quick comparison against my HP-3, and my beloved little orthos sounded thin and somewhat sterile after the RH-5ma. They definitely are not, but the RH5 have such body to their sound that the transition from one to the other is shocking. I then pitched them against my modded and recabled iGrados, and the RH-5ma did sound much better: the iGrados sounded veiled, with distant and lifeless mids, and overemphasized treble details.
The only fault I'm finding with the RH-5ma is their so-so rendering of some acoustic music. I don't know if it's a fault of the specific tracks I listened to, or their full-bodied sound that does not have the delicate touch required for some acoustic instruments. Will investigate more, meanwhile I'm enjoying them a lot with all my other tracks.
I am sure there's a wow factor in play here, and my affection for Yamaha products might make me a bit overenthusiastic, but these are seriously good sounding phones, unbelievably so for their 39 euros price tag. I think that if I had bought them one year ago, I might have saved myself quite a bit of money spent on crappy, low or mid end dynamics.
Kabeer is hunting down a pair too, so he might be able to post his impressions in the near future.
