Here is my first impression of YH-5000SE.
So far I used only sheepskin pads and 6.35mm single-ended cable.
1. Exterior
Excellent. Its mechanical look reminds me of Maruishi's sports bicycle and the Swiss army knife of Victorinox. Lightweight is as expected, though it feels very tough. Many parts are assembled carefully (I didn't know so many were used for a pair of headphones). The finish of every part is beautiful. Most parts are black, but different parts made from different materials are given different textures. From the first glimpse, I knew that this was something very good. I regret that I cannot watch the appearance while listening. The grayish-silver cable is easy to manage. It is thick but very flexible and has a soft surface. Microphonic noise is very low.
I love this slider part the best among many other parts with incredible craftsmanship.
The yellow accent. Everything else is black-silver finish.
2. Fit and comfort
Very good, but I should say that it was not what I expected from many comments I have read. The headband, made from leather and suede, was flexible, but some tension is added. At first, it did not fit well. I needed some try-and-error to find the good position of the headband, the height of the step-less slider, the earcups' position, tilt, and pan. After a minute of adjusting, I found the best setting, and suddenly, the phones disappeared. No problem with three hours of listening sessions. It is like a trench coat with many buttons and belts which I need to control to fit my body, rather than a cashmere sweater, or it is like industrial machines, not luxury brand bags, etcetc. It is in contrast to Focal's (I have tried clear mg and stellia, but not utopia).
Inside of the band. In this photo, it looks dark purple, but the actual color is black.
3. Sound
Here is my background. You can skip this paragraph if not interested in my bias. I am a great fan of J.S. Bach and Beethoven. Mainly I listen to classical music, including piano, strings, symphony, and concertos. I also listen to Japanese Pop, Rock, and Anime songs. My favorite instrument is the cello, prefer female vocals to males, I enjoy both old masters and new youngsters. My current main headphones were HD800s. I have auditioned clear mg, th909, stellia, hd820, ath-awas, etc. Unfortunately I haven't have a chance to try other very expensive headphones, such as utopia, empyrean/elite, susvara, d8000, any of stax, dca, and audezee. So YH-5000SE is the first of the headphones in the highest price range in my life. I use WH-1000XM4 while commuting.
Devices were I-O data Soundgenic HDL-RA3HG (storage and player), TEAC UD-505 (DAC), and audio-technica AT-BHA100 (tube+SS hybrid amp). I know the total price of the chain is still cheaper than YH-5000SE, however, it is my current system, and it is always better to keep everything else the same for any experiment. The gain of the amp is always low. If not specified, the following comments are with this system connected by a single-ended original cable of YH-5000SE.
Specific burn-in is not done. I played music one by one and always listened to them for 10 hours before writing this review and the performance sounds stable. Unlike some other reviewers, I do not think YH demands so long burn-in.
The very first impression was "natural" and “more music than audio”.
Sensitivity:
As its spec tells, it does not demand much voltage. Never tuned the volume to more than the 9 o'clock position (70 by iFi Gryphon, half of my sony smartphone). Well, though, I have never minded the power of amps with any headphones. My ears may be more sensitive than average. I always wonder why so many reviewers and amp producers stress amps’ power. I seldom turn the volume louder than 10 o'clock.
Resolution:
Great. Every sound is visible. I found many nuances for the first time from my 20yrs-favorite recordings, say, the sound when a violinist’s left-hand finger taps the fingerboard, the clothes of the musicians, the vibration of open-G strings of the cello after the cellist removed the bow from the string, pedal on and off of the pianists, the very last moment of the reverb, small bell added behind drums, the unison of clarinet and flute, etc. Despite its high ability to separate each sound, it never disassembles the music. If I shift my focus from an instrument to the whole performance, it comes as a united organism.
One of my reference recordings is
Symphonia Concertante of Mozart. In this piece, two soloists, Midori Goto and Nobuko Imai, play violin and viola in front of an orchestra. So there are lots of strings players on the stage. YH-5000SE differentiates not only the soloists and the orchestra but also the tonal difference of violin and viola of the soloists. Nobuko's sound is often considered "violin-like viola," and I used to think so, too. But through YH-5000SE, I changed this opinion. The tone is a viola's.
Soundstage:
Excellent. The soundstage quality is the most attractive feature of YH. Believe me, I use HD800S for daily listening, and even though I say this. The width may be a bit smaller than HD800s. Height is similar but not the highest (imo ak701y3 is the highest). Depth (front-and-rear direction, or Z axis) is the best in the three dimensions. Well, I wrote "soundstage quality". YH-5000se shows me where in the stage each of the players is, or, for pop and rock, what post-production engineers intended to place each musician. Not only side-by-side, but also front/rear and low/high relations. Say, in the above recording of Mozart, the double-bass section stays a bit right and behind the cello team. Normally I can see they stay right of the cellos. I found that I have missed front/rear information for more than a decade. For studio recording, for example in "
Welcome to Japari Park", many "animal girls" sing and chant. Their positioning intended by the composer/guitarist/engineer Oishi is very clear. I found that he added his own small voice behind everything with small sound images. Ah, I wrote about the details too much. The 3D holographic reproduction takes me to the concert hall. I can see the orchestra on the stage from a center-middle seat, and it is also possible to find each instrument. This is what I expected for a long time.
Lows:
Against many comments on the relatively light bass, I find just enough bass. Well, I prefer "just enough" for everything. e.g. Lows of TH-909 is too much for me. It is punchier than HD800s, but not very loud. It is difficult to express the extent of bass, though; at least my ears are safe. More important for me is, again, the quality. In many headphone reviews, they say the separation of the kick drum and electric bass. For YH-5000SE, I didn't need to check that point because they were clearly different from each other. Drums are acoustic percussion, and EB is an electrically amplified string. They are different, aren't they? At first, I missed electric bass because it was too clear, and my brain judged it to be something else.
Mids:
The general impression is "as is". Lifelike and vivid. I can see how the vocalists move their lips and the individual tonal character of the cellists. The
prelude of
cello suite no.1 of J.S Bach, played by yo-yo ma, Fournier, or anyone else, sounds very different. I also like the exciting distortion of the electric guitars in "
Distortion" of the Kessoku band. (A girls’ band in the anime
Bocchi the Rock. If you are both a head-fier and a fan of Japanese anime, you must watch this and check out all the music!)
Highs:
Just after the open box, the very high tone of the violin was harsh, but after three-four hours of burn-in, it was solved and never appeared. No problem with female vocals. The cymbal is shining. The piano is crisp. Once, I noticed the highest tone of the flute is distorted, but the music file was what I digitized from an LP with cheap devices, and the problem was from the source. (Info for the fans of flute music: it is
Mozart Sonata played by P. L. Graf in a young age). The flute might be the best so far among the music I listened to with YH-5000SE. This recording sounded full of joy.
Pairings:
I totally agree with my predecessor’s impressions. It reveals the quality of the source so much. Streaming in CD quality by Deezer sounds very noisy, while DSD downloaded from e-onkyo is excellent. This is a bit stressful for me. I would like to enjoy music in every way. I haven't tested other devices except for iFi Gryphone to check the volume. I will try with Zen-Dac/Zen-Can, headphones out of UD-505, ADI-2 pro, and phonitor x. (Do not say everything is cheaper than the headphones!) Please wait.
4. Summary
YH-5000SE is an excellent
machine made by a giant of the music industry. It outputs what you input, with a slight consideration of easiness of listening. No exaggeration and decoration. If the recording is bad, it sounds bad. If the recording and connected devices are good, I can fully enjoy the music. In an easy mood, the lightweight and good comfort make me relax. With a serious attitude toward music, the world is infinite.
First pair in North America?
