Yamaha has formally introduced the headphone amplification spouse for its YH-5000SE headphones, following international previews of the expected element in contemporary months.
The HA-L7A, which we were given hands-on evaluation time with on the Top Finish Munich and Australian Hello-Fi displays previous this yr, is Yamaha’s first-ever high-end amplifier and has been designed to spouse with its five-star flagship headphones (despite the fact that any stressed headphones can naturally be used with it).
Whilst the L7A may well be its debut headphone amp, the corporate for sure has a wealthy historical past of amplifier engineering as its basis. Certainly, the Jap logo says it took the patented Floating and Balanced Energy Amplifier applied sciences on the core of its pre, energy and built-in stereo amplifiers, and optimised them for headphone programs.
Because the high-end value level calls for (we’ll get to that later), Yamaha has apparently taken outstanding care to restrict noise and distortion within the identify of fresh, top of the range energy and function. Initially, the 3 circuit forums (the principle board that handles minute indicators, the amplifier board, and the ability provide board) are remoted from one any other.
All circuitry is supposedly completely unbiased of the bottom, cancelling the results of exterior ground-related noise, and the post-DAC phases have balanced circuity for totally balanced transmission (balanced conversion may be in-built for standard unbalanced inputs for consistency around the enter assets).
Then there’s a twin toroidal transformer design, with the ability provide the use of unbiased transformers for the minute-signal circuitry within the entrance level and the amplifier segment in the second one level. Those two transformers sit down immediately above the ability provide board, minimising the ability provide trail and developing a particular L-shaped chassis. Talking of which, Yamaha guarantees to have created a extremely inflexible, 5.3kg-heavy chassis right here to minimise the impact of vibrations – the highest panel is fabricated from 8mm-thick aluminium, the toroidal transformers are fastened firmly onto a 2mm-thick metal plate, and there’s additionally a double rear panel, and a novel heavy-duty housing that includes a backside quilt on the finish. 5 conical ft – one at each and every nook – with dampers between them and the ground panel lend a hand soak up vibrations too.
The HL-L7A is unsurprisingly a digital-friendly device, with USB kind B, coaxial, and optical inputs fed through ESS Era’s top-tier ES9038PRO 32-bit, 8-channel DAC chip, which includes a devoted grasp clock utilising a crystal oscillator with ultra-low segment noise, and applies four-channel conversion to each the left and proper facets, within the identify of correct conversion.
There also are XLR and four.4mm Pentaconn balanced headphone outputs along with a unmarried unbalanced headphone connection, plus XLR and RCA pre-out/line-out outputs to permit the L7A to even be used as a DAC or preamplifier.
Yamaha is shouting from the rooftops about its new Sound Box mode, which provides six sound presets for developing the optimum sound box relying at the song or video supply being performed. Once more, this sees Yamaha bringing the soundfield applied sciences and processing it has advanced through the years for its AV receivers, into the headphone global.
So, we get to the associated fee. The Yamaha HA-L7A is priced at £3499 / AU$6999, with UK availability taking off in November and Australian availability kicking off someday in ‘This autumn’. (We can replace this text with pricing and availability data for the USA marketplace in a while.)
Will the HA-L7A turn out a powerful rival for the class-leading Chord Hugo TT2 at this value degree? Whilst an preliminary paying attention to the HA-L7A and YH-5000SE right through the Top Finish Munich display gave us each and every impact that that is certainly a harmonious head-fi pairing, we will’t wait to move twelve rounds with it in our check rooms in the end.
MORE:
Learn our hands-on Yamaha HA-L7A evaluation
Learn our complete five-star Yamaha YH-5000SE evaluation
16 very best headphones of the twenty first century
Allow 48h for review and removal.