[padam]

How to tell? .. isn't it that most reviews these days have some "embedded/related/implied" commercial interest? When was it last time that we could find a review where a reviewer is doing it 110% for the sake of "educating/unearthing" the "truth" and not the slightest smell of "embedded/related/implied" commercial interest could be sniffed?? At least not from my own memories, but can't speak for others ..

https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/06/review-stax-sr-lambda/
https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/10/review-stax-sr-007-mk1/

I link these two since I've owned several of those for a long period of time, I consider his ratings to be subjective, but the actual description of the sound is nicely written and you can have at least some sense of how these might sound.
Also, writing about old products does not generate any meaningful revenue from affiliate links or other endorsements. That's not what most "reviewers" would want.

What people want to see is how great a product is if they spend their hard-earned money on it. It makes them happy and they can agree and upvote.
In comparison, a 'real' review points out the positives and drawbacks in equal manner. (The problem is that if you do that here some people will start to attack you saying your system is wrong, you are testing it with the wrong music etc. etc.)
Measurement-based reviews have the opposite bias where they think everything is based on it and it makes people think you already know how something sounds from a graph or how EQ will correct everything. It started out well, but became a bad trend (imho of course).

 

[jjss]

https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/06/review-stax-sr-lambda/
https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/10/review-stax-sr-007-mk1/

I link these two since I've owned several of those for a long period of time, I consider his ratings to be subjective, but the actual description of the sound is nicely written and you can have at least some sense of how these might sound.
Also, writing about old products does not generate any meaningful revenue from affiliate links or other endorsements. That's not what most "reviewers" would want.

What people want to see is how great a product is if they spend their hard-earned money on it. It makes them happy and they can agree and upvote.
In comparison, a 'real' review points out the positives and drawbacks in equal manner. (The problem is that if you do that here some people will start to attack you saying your system is wrong, you are testing it with the wrong music etc. etc.)
Measurement-based reviews have the opposite bias where they think everything is based on it and it makes people think you already know how something sounds from a graph or how EQ will correct everything. It started out well, but became a bad trend (imho of course).

Audio equipment reviews have long been an integral part of the audiophile industry and ecosystem. As usual there are good ones and not so good ones.

 

[padam]

Audio equipment reviews have long been an integral part of the audiophile industry and ecosystem. As usual there are good ones and not so good ones.

If you gain enough experience, you will realise there is very little you can actually trust other than yourself, or maybe others with a somewhat less subjective take on things.
For instance, if it comes from an audio engineer with a reference-level speaker system, he can tell you how his mixes translate on a particular headphone, how it differs from what he might call his reference. Even they might have differing views from each other, but that's useful.
Or, you might able to ask a musician how certain instruments supposed to sound if you are unsure of judging it yourself.
Because the main problem is that most people simply don't have that much experience with that - and yet that's how they give advice to others, and that's how hype spreads out even more.

 

[eskamobob1]

What was the chain?

The RME they demo with and then tried them on p6 pro and lp6 as well

 

[Tachyon88]

A review from Korea with lots of graphs and analysis. I think the English subtitles are a little confusing in places. But it's a unique style of review.

Wow this has more distortion than the HD800s does and an uneven borked FR.

 

[K3cT]

A review from Korea with lots of graphs and analysis. I think the English subtitles are a little confusing in places. But it's a unique style of review.

Is it only me or does the sample clips with the Yamaha have recessed mids? The original HP-1 doesn't have a recessed midrange.

 

[chargedcapacitor]

Wow this has more distortion than the HD800s does and an uneven borked FR.

Wow, what an absolute letdown. Looks like it resembles nothing of the performance of the D8000.

 

[stacey]

It sounds like impressions for the Yamaha are all over the map. I’m guessing that it’s source dependent?

 

[ScornDefeat]

It sounds like impressions for the Yamaha are all over the map. I’m guessing that it’s source dependent?

Yamaha insisted that demonstrations be on the RME ADI-2 (including CanJam), so if the developers felt that was the right match, it's tough to second-guess them. Source/chain always has an impact, but its unlikely that source/chain differences are impacting the scattered impressions on this.

 

[adrianm]

They are also hyper fit dependant which generaly kinda annoys me with cans

This, and the...interesting tuning choice are probably the causes of the very polarized opinions.

 

[Zhanming057]

Wow, what an absolute letdown. Looks like it resembles nothing of the performance of the D8000.

I wouldn't necessarily trust the FR measured on a reviewer's own testing rig. FWIW my experience is not even remotely close to that curve, and it's at least as good as the D8000 pro on most aspects outside of the lighter bass response.

Testing the DCS Lina with my own pair at Canjam:

 

[benjifx19]

I was underwhelmed tremendously. The yh-5000se can't handle much bass at all. I wanted to like them i just could not. Maybe a different amplifier then RME would have been different

 

[chargedcapacitor]

I was underwhelmed tremendously. The yh-5000se can't handle much bass at all. I wanted to like them i just could not. Maybe a different amplifier then RME would have been different

While a great DAC, I have never enjoyed any planar from the amp section of the RME Adi.

 

[jjss]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...bruary-25-26-2023.967080/reply?quote=17426330
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...bruary-25-26-2023.967080/reply?quote=17426352

Impressions from CanJam and seems very polarized. Given such "unsatisfactory" ambience, not exactly conducive to proper evaluation, I doubt the usefulness of such input, anyway it seems that this potentially is quite a "controversial" product amongst audiophiles .. one benchmark, more relevant to looking at the HP is the "true sound" mission that has been strongly advocated by Yamaha, amongst all its HiFi products not just this HP. Don't know if there is anyone around who has more intimate experience with these HiFi products (like their amps, Dacs, and network players) as a basis to evaluate if this is the so called the Yamaha "house sound", something akin to the Sony signature series "house sound" ..

 

[Zhanming057]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...bruary-25-26-2023.967080/reply?quote=17426330
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...bruary-25-26-2023.967080/reply?quote=17426352

Impressions from CanJam and seems very polarized. Given such "unsatisfactory" ambience, not exactly conducive to proper evaluation, I doubt the usefulness of such input, anyway it seems that this potentially is quite a "controversial" product amongst audiophiles .. one benchmark, more relevant to looking at the HP is the "true sound" mission that has been strongly advocated by Yamaha, amongst all its HiFi products not just this HP. Don't know if there is anyone around who has more intimate experience with these HiFi products (like their amps, Dacs, and network players) as a basis to evaluate if this is the so called the Yamaha "house sound", something akin to the Sony signature series "house sound" ..

Every headphone gets polarizing reviews at Canjam. That's just how the show works. You can get good impressions but you need to know what to do and calibrate expectations with gear you are intimately familiar with. Even then, it works better if the upstream is designed to have synergy, and even better if you have one of the quieter side rooms.

Sony could not possibly have a "house sound". The 3-4 main designers and product managers of the high-end audio products all have their own ideas, and I know for a fact that some of them don't see eye-to-eye. I would be absolutely shocked if the YH-5000SE team talked to their network player team more than once a year.