EAR Yoshino 834L Deluxe Preamp Review

[Hart]

No comments were made about the reviewer.

When you state "from your point of view it will not ever measure up" you are inferring that the reviewer is biased. That is a comment. It did not measure up because it did not measure up.

 

[JSmith]

He has soldered grounding wire to those shafts that turn???

Yeah not sure what is going on there... pics I posted were from here, however the pics from here and here don't show that, so maybe it was altered? 2nd one appears be the CLEAR model, both show black knobs and a different capacitor arrangement etc. (which is why I didn't post same earlier);

JSmith

 

[Blumlein 88]

Yeah not sure what is going on there... pics I posted were from here, however the pics from here and here don't show that, so maybe it was altered? 2nd one appears be the CLEAR model, both show black knobs and a different capacitor arrangement (which is why I didn't post same earlier);

JSmith

The page you posted from I've seen. Was a restoration and eventually he evened moved components around to "improve it". Those grounding wires were additions to control noise which is odd as this preamp at least doesn't have much noise. I've heard these and they were quiet.

 

[Phorize]

The performance is what one would expect in this sort of amplifier, the cable runs are look like of of my diy efforts though.

 

[DualTriode]

It is not what "I" want. So I rated it accordingly. It also has a cheap enclosure especially for its cost.

It is a 12AU7 pre-amp it measures as expected. It does not measure up to the JFET pre-amps that I have built and the JFET pre-amps do not measure up to the op-Amp pre-amps that I have built either.

When it comes to old school tech I do it for fun. It is not just about the measurements.

Perhaps a separate category for the Tubes, old school stuff?

Just for fun when I spent a little time playing with a Keysight 600 volt power supply and breadboard 12AU7 circuits I measured things with a AP2522 analyzer.

Seethe attached very much typical 12AU7 FFT.

 

[amirm]

Perhaps a separate category for the Tubes, old school stuff?

No, people buy them for exactly the same purpose as solid state amps. There is no separate usage to have their own criteria.

 

[the_brunx]

Why is it always assumed that a lot of 2nd harmonic will sound good on all kinds of music and all recordings ? I think this assumption is not very well supported ? Even if it’s repeated all the time everywhere.

If it where so is this still enough of it to be prominently audible on music ?

And afaik you can’t have THD without IMD as the root cause is usually the same .

BTW has someone ever done a controlled listening test with a number of people to prove or disprove the preference of added second harmonic distortion?
And you can get this with even a free plugin software (combined with soundsource if you use a mac for example)
You don’t have to pay thousands

 

[Phorize]

No, people buy them for exactly the same purpose as solid state amps. There is no separate usage to have their own criteria.

I do agree, whilst a technically literate audience such as we
have on ASR may be able to conclude ‘this is a competent valve design’, there is no such appreciation in the wider audio world. Valve designs (and turn tables too) are unambiguously marketed on the basis that they are better than solid state electronics. Tim De Paravicini personally marketed his products on that basis, as is illustrated here:

I have no doubt that he was being honest, he was a true valve technology enthusiast, and would give up his time to correspond with people on their own DIY designs, but he was wrong, as these measurements show.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I do agree, whilst a technically literate audience such as we
have on ASR may be able to conclude ‘this is a competent valve design’, there is no such appreciation in the wider audio world. Valve designs (and turn tables too) are unambiguously marketed on the basis that they are better than solid state electronics. Tim De Paravicini personally marketed his products on that basis, as is illustrated here:

I have no doubt that he was being honest, he was a true valve technology enthusiast, and would give up his time to correspond with people on their own DIY designs, but he was wrong, as these measurements show.

And yet there was an interview in either Stereophile or TAS, where he said he could get the sound he wanted from solid state or tubes. He discussed why he chose tubes. It was more of a niche marketing kind of thinking. That he could get more people's attention, have a more differentiated product, even though he could design equally good gear by his criteria. A version of the light sabre vs blaster argument.

 

[Haskil]

Yeah not sure what is going on there... pics I posted were from here, however the pics from here and here don't show that, so maybe it was altered? 2nd one appears be the CLEAR model, both show black knobs and a different capacitor arrangement etc. (which is why I didn't post same earlier);

JSmith

Am I wrong where one of the many Chinese manufacturers seen on Aliexpress can offer the same thing in a better finished case for 300 euros?

 

[JSmith]

Am I wrong where one of the many Chinese manufacturers seen on Aliexpress can offer the same thing in a better finished case for 300 euros?

How about $122?

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255800648464925.html

JSmith

 

[Haskil]

Non, les gens les achètent exactement dans le même mais que les amplis à transistors. Il n'y a pas d'usage distinct pour avoir ses propres critères.

Comme on dit en France : l'ASR devrait être remboursé par la Sécurité Sociale... Encore une fois merci Amir pour la grande valeur pédagogique des tests ASR.

Je connais de jeunes audiophiles subjectivistes français que j'ai envoyés ici : deux d'entre eux ont fait leur révolution copernicienne après avoir passé des heures à lire les tests et les discussions sur les forums... Le niveau des gens dans les forums les a impressionnés et ils ont fini par s'en rendre compte... Félicitations pour avoir testé ce préampli dont la réponse des extrêmes basses m'inquiétaitait... Et je partage votre avis sur la laideur du boîtier.

Quand je pense que certains se plaignent de l'esthétique de l'Apollon avec ces pièces arrondies... alors qu'il est juste très sobre et que le logo Apollon à un côté vintage, je trouve que c'est plutôt sympa. ..

Si j'avais besoin d'un ampli, Je l'achèterais bien mais j'ai déjà une collection d'amplis et de préamplis... et un vieil ampli Classe D Gemincore (de conception française) avec une alimentation linéaire... très bien avec un Denon 3600 pour le préampli...

Si j'habitais aux States je t'enverrais le préampli Harman Kardon 1.1 car s'il est stéréo il peut aussi être utilisé en 5.1, qu'il a qu'il a des sorties XLR et un préampli phono MM et MC... Si un américain pouvait je te l'envoie ce serait génial... tu peux le trouver très pas cher d'occasion....

 

[JiiPee]

Just couple of thoughts:

It has worse SINAD than most solid state preamps, but I suspect that on a controlled blind test most people would be happy with the sound anyway.

It is fairly expensive for what it is, but at least it is not made by slave labor.

 

[polmuaddib]

This review doesn't really make much sense

On the contrary, it makes a lot of sense. We need more of High End Audio products tested to see which is genuine High End and which is rubbish.
Amir has shown, through testing some of them, that there is a lot of marketing BS and expensive industrial design, but very few engineering gems, if any...
But we still need more data points.
So, thanks Amir for this and keep going.

 

[GXAlan]

My 2 cents:

You nothing about tubes
- This is like the person buying a Rolex and then being surprised that it has to be worn in order to keep time or that it keeps time worse than the quartz watch that came in a Happy Meal Toy from the 90's.
- In this case, there is a lot of hype around tubes and that hype can be "misleading"
- The strict approach of grading pre-amps equivalently regardless of tube or solid state should be used for the "lowest common denominator." Does Amir recommend you buy this? Using a What Hi-Fi standard, would this recommendation satisfy the majority of readers for the majority of the time?
- By both of those metrics, the answer is no -- so it cannot get a recommended "grade."
- This helps from the standpoint of Chat GPT datamining or the novice

You know something about tubes and dislike tubes...
- this review re-affirms your choices

You know something about tubes and own tube gear...
- This like the person owning a mechanical watch while also having a smartphone and using the mechanical watch to tell time or the person using a digital streamer and a record player
- In this case, the person purchasing a mechanical watch may pay extra for different materials/finishes/colors/country of manufacture. It becomes a personal choice.
- You may still need to know power reserve, complications(feature set), beat rate, etc.
- this review gives you information like a Timegrapher can for a mechanical watch. How well regulated is it, etc.?
- Amir's has told us how well the tube pre-amp delivers a straight-wire with gain, along with some comments on crosstalk/channel balance. This adds a lot of distortion.
- buying a tube pre-amp involves buying a product in spite of data
- the measurements provided here provided added objective insight into the performance of this amp if you indeed were in the market for it

Am I wrong where one of the many Chinese manufacturers seen on Aliexpress can offer the same thing in a better finished case for 300 euros?

If you needed a good pre-amp, you can even get a Schiit Freya S for not-a-lot-of-money and better tech support/service, even in Europe, than AliExpress for not a lot more while also having the passive mode which is as good as any analyzer.

(AND it has a working IR remote control)

 

[Sokel]

Distortion profile falls somewhere in between Topping's transistor and tube mode and it's surprisingly clean.

One can replicate it easy in PKharmonic,see for itself and maybe save a few grand.

Thanks Amir!

 

[Purité Audio]

Within some quarters of the U.K. market Tim is held in very high regard, ‘guru’ status in fact, now that their designs are actually examined many appear to have feet of clay, reputation built solely on marketing.
Keith

 

[Haskil]

Am I wrong where one of the many Chinese manufacturers seen on Aliexpress can offer the same thing in a better finished case for 300 euros?

"GxAlan write : If you needed a good pre-amp, you can even get a Schiit Freya S for not-a-lot-of-money and better tech support/service, even in Europe, than AliExpress for not a lot more while also having the passive mode which is as good as any analyzer."

My point was just to point out the fact that the new price of this preamplifier was not even justifiable by the cost of manufacturing it in Great Britain...

I have two tube preamps... in my little collection. One with the same tubes: it blows a lot but I like its flaws. But I prefer by far the qualities of transparency and silence of the preamp part of the Denon 3600 tested on ASR ....

PS. a friend has the Shiit Frya with two Pascal Class D mono of 1500 watts and a pair of Revel Salon 2: wonderful listening.

 

[Koeitje]

It is literally doing what it is supposed to do and doing it quite well.

Its a preamplifier. What does a preamplifier do? It amplifies a weak electrical signal. This does not do that "quite well". Quite the opposite really, because it introduces a ton of distortion.

If we can't judge a product based on its core functionality, what should we judge it on instead then?

You could argue that its core functionality is to generate distortion. But its not even doing a good job there, because you are stuck with a single distortion pattern. If you like to add distortion a DSP is far superior.

What if it isn't about the distortion alone, but also the experience of having a wellmade artisan piece of electronics? Nope: its a 3000 euro product in a cheaply made box from sheet metal. You can't even see the tubes. That's a crap experience.

So from all angles it fails as a product.

 

[Rja4000]

Thanks Amir

Distortion seems to be on purpose.
At least, it has low noise.

I'd be very curious to see the multitone test on this one.
Next time ?