Originally Posted by Superpredator /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now all I have to do is tell your wife (or girlfriend? or someone) and then I can get my hands on the microZ. Unless you're single, in which case you would be impervious to my anti-ninja powers.
In any event, it looks like my cc was charged the remaining balance yesterday. Yammy here I come. Now I can (*hopefully*) streamline my rig.
I will now have three nice amps after the Yamamoto HA-02 comes in.
I was thinking about selling my AT-HA5000 but my wife says: "Isn't that you one that you have enjoyed for so long? Why do you want to get rid of it? "
Now, don't be jealous!
When did you order your unit? I ordered mine on July 17. No need to respond since I traced it back to July 8. I may not be so far behind you.
Originally Posted by Superpredator /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now all I have to do is tell your wife (or girlfriend? or someone) and then I can get my hands on the microZ. Unless you're single, in which case you would be impervious to my anti-ninja powers.
In any event, it looks like my cc was charged the remaining balance yesterday. Yammy here I come. Now I can (*hopefully*) streamline my rig.
Originally Posted by slwiser /img/forum/go_quote.gif I will now have three nice amps after the Yamamoto HA-02 comes in.
I was thinking about selling my AT-HA5000 but my wife says: "Isn't that you one that you have enjoyed for so long? Why do you want to get rid of it? "
Now, don't be jealous!
When did you order your unit? I ordered mine on July 17. No need to respond since I traced it back to July 8. I may not be so far behind you.
Doh! Your wife is a ninja-advocate.. how can I go up against that? My wife happens to be my W2002, and she's very excited about the Yammy, so I don't have much of a reason to be jealous.
It sounds like you should be right behind me. Let's hope our batch is the nice dark stain.
Originally Posted by slwiser /img/forum/go_quote.gif When did you order your unit? I ordered mine on July 17. No need to respond since I traced it back to July 8. I may not be so far behind you.
Hmm. Thats interesting. I ordered mine on July 27th. Everything points to a little over a month and a half turn around. I can't wait to get my hands on Shige-san's hand wound transformer. It's coupled to a tube circuit, I'm curious what the function of those tubes are. Soon I will have to start reading up on the care and feeding of tube amps (because it will be my first.)
Originally Posted by wower /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm. Thats interesting. I ordered mine on July 27th. Everything points to a little over a month and a half turn around. I can't wait to get my hands on Shige-san's hand wound transformer. It's coupled to a tube circuit, I'm curious what the function of those tubes are. Soon I will have to start reading up on the care and feeding of tube amps (because it will be my first.)
Please post your arrival date slwiser!
I would not be able to keep silent about it, believe me. This was to me my first tube amp as well but the microZOTL came along and I had to get it. Comparing these two amps will be a delight to hear.
After spending a lot of time with the Yamamoto HA-02. While I like it and don't really plan on selling it based on its size partly and its well-suitedness for a work rig. I really question if it is the BEST value at 975 shipped. While I beleive it is a good value as there are a few 1000 amps that I like significantly less than the Yamamoto HA-02 (I didn't really like the Opera for one), I must wonder if a used Singlepower Extreme at ~750 bucks or one of the Chinese tube amps with appropriately selected tubes might be a better value.
The main weakness of the amp, though this seemed like a strength to me at the time, is that you don't have a wide selection of tubes to roll into this amp and in fact the ones that Mr. Yamamoto furnishes are probably already some of the best or maybe they ARE the best. While it does sound good with a good variety of headphones as far as your ability to tune it or simply vary the sound to mix things up is veryyy limited compared to other tube amps in the Darkvoice-Extreme price range. This isn't even taking into account the tube adapters that Singlepower puts at one's disposal (Though at a significant cost at 100 dollars per).
One of the reasons I ordered this amp was the small and cheap tube selection. I didn't want to get into the whole tube culture where I'd spend many waking hrs and dollars hunting down some holy grail set of tubes that might last me only a couple years by which time there were no replacements available at any amount of money. But.... now that I have entered in that culture with other amps anyway it doesn't seem as bad as I might have feared ;p And the option for variety is nice.
I really have no complaints about Mr. Yamamoto's build quality (Except for the humming issue that maybe only I get anyways and seems to have gone away since I upgraded power cord) and obviously the Amp looks BEAUTIFUL esp in conjunction with the AT W1000... and it sounds amazing. But if I could afford only 1 amp period in the same price range thennnn.... I dunno it if would be this amp.
Of course if I really could afford 1 amp period I would probably scrounge up some extra cash for a balanced Kevin Gilmore designed Dynafet (Don't think anyone's made one yet but it's supposed to edge out the beta22 in frequency response testing... of course that isn't everything and doesn't mean that it necessarily will sound better ;p)/beta22 or a Zana Deux. As it is though I am very happy with my collection of amps and don't plan on parting with any.
But if I could afford only 1 amp period in the same price range thennnn.... I dunno it if would be this amp.
You make a lot of good points - and agreed that, if one is looking for more flexibility re: tube rolling, impedance selection, do it all VFM champ, etc., in this category, then there are certainly other choices particularly those you've mentioned.
That said, I see the Yamamoto as more of a truffle or luxury/statement piece not necessarily designed to please everyone but rather an expression of Yamamoto San's idea of what he preferred. As you note, the workmanship is really first class - it is clear that Yamamoto is quite passionate about his products. The funny thing in this life is that whether in art, business, when one does follow their passion by pursuing a decidedly narrow goal, in general, more often than not, their work is respected across the board as, I believe, in this case.
This passion for detail and the trademark Yamamoto sound is what really drew me to purchasing the Yammy. This is not meant to disparage the other players/competitors, actually far from it, as they have other design goals / priorities.
Coming full circle, I feel very fortunate to own a bespoke piece at a not-so-bespoke price and, Lord willing, will continue to enjoy it for many years.
I hate when these conversations stray onto the topic of value; it's subjective and it's a minefield. Personally, I don't want a mass produced chinese amp. I want to take a little piece of Japan home with me. I believe it was a good value and flexibility is always in the eye of the beholder. Japanese gear has it's own sound sig that really snaps with some types of music and I think I understand it better having lived here for sooooo long.
Just replying Ic. Your posted totally belongs in the thread!
I bring this up because on my running forum everything is going to heck with some demanding posts stay narrowly on topic. I say; the more information, the wider, the better. You don't sound like an out of control troll to me.
Japanese gear has it's own sound sig that really snaps with some types of music and I think I understand it better having lived here for sooooo long.
My experience mirrors yours as well and, likewise, your sentiments. In fact, my Yammy has influenced my 2 channel tastes to the point that one could say that I'm "turning Japanese" . . . http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...49390&read&3&4& .
I hate when these conversations stray onto the topic of value; it's subjective and it's a minefield. Personally, I don't want a mass produced chinese amp.
i am not sure about what u mean of mass produced chinese amp, been surfing the chinese head amp forum lately , and find out a lot about chinese amp, from what i know most of the company are small company, some of them are one man company like yamamoto san, if u want to order a product from them, u have to line up in the queue for months like the yammy. if u talk about mass produced the only thing i can think of is sony.
Is "massed produced" the only problem with my post? Cause if it is, well, I'm not the kind of guy to debate semantics: You win. It's late in Japan and I don't have the energy to lay it all out. It was just my opinion. I actually think very highly of the new breed of Chinese HP amps. They are a great market equalizer and will keep other manufactures on their toes. Can we please drop it?
In the context of the preceding post, a reference was made to Yammy's value vis a vis other market offerings in the same price range. Nothing wrong with strict dollar comparisons, this is logical as it is usually initial basis when considering a multiple of choices.
That said, $$ are not the only consideration, especially as when we’re talking non-essentials. On this basis, it’s quite reasonable to assume that a Porsche 911 as compared to a Honda Minivan (pun intended
) would be not necessarily fare well from a VFM standpoint. Both would get you from point A to B and both are very well made products. Aside from this, there are many reasons - pride of ownership, bespoke manufacturing, exclusivity, resale, etc., to name just a few, as to why people are willing to pay a premium for the one over the other. This, despite the clear utilitarian advantage of the Honda.
Case in point . . . looking at my Cayin & Yammy, from a strict VFM standpoint, with its preamp functionality, tube rollability (just made up that word ), multi-impedance capability, it would be very reasonable to say that the Cayin is the smarter choice - especially given that local pricing represents a significant discount when compared to US/EU retail. With the Yammy being approximately 2x the price, does that make it twice as good? I think not and could very easily live the Cayin if need be. However, for my purposes, these two products serve slightly different purposes and to me, the Yammy was and is worth every penny despite the multiple of price.
It is in this light, likening the Honda to "mass produced Chinese amps", that I interpreted Wower’s comments and in my opinion, not a slight towards Chinese made amps whatsoever but rather his decision to look at value from a broader perspective.
I ordered an HA-02 from Brian, at Venus HiFi, on 6/29, and paid in full. So far I haven't received the amp., or any recent info from Brian regarding when It'll arrive. How long have others been waiting at this point?
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