EAR Yoshino 834L Deluxe Preamp Review

[fpitas]

But if the artist made a chaos by using playback equipment with high 2nd harmonic distortion for example one from EAR to monitor how much 2nd harmonic distortion to add in the recording until it is perfect. But the audience used a cleaner amp to playback, would that not mean they are getting less than what the artist intended?

If I have to perform some kind of sound effects on recordings to make them sound "right", that's a bad implication about the integrity of the recording. Feel free to maniplulate it if you like.

 

[Mulder]

Science is often not truly black and white, like a lot of people think. The 25 years of doing my science based job have taught me to never say never - as sometimes things are literally turned on their head, or things come completely out of nowhere sometimes.

This is basic in science. Nobody seriously involved in science would claim there is no new knowledge to establish. That there is a finite border beyond which nothing more is to discover. But that is not the point. If you want to question an established knowledge, you need to formulate an alternative hypothesis and then with a suitable verifiable method show that your alternative hypothesis is true. What we often see in the HiFi context is a bunch of pseudo-hypotheses that basically just mask opinions, myths, incomplete knowledge, loose assumptions and speculation. What we often see is actually not a questioning of certain established knowledge regarding signal amplifiers, but a questioning of science as such.

 

[Haskil]

They do it for vocals too

I have attended and/or participated in many recordings of classical instrumental and vocal music and I have never seen distortion deliberately added. On the other hand, I have seen composers use all kinds of timbre modifications during the public performance of their works, but when the Radio recorded them they did not add any distortion...

 

[mhardy6647]

He has soldered grounding wire to those shafts that turn??? Wonder how long they will last.

Looks like it's just soldered to the surface, too... maybe a through-hole would have been a little better(?) Or maybe not.

I look at the guts and I see an OK vacuum tube preamp. Maybe worth $500 retail.
The thing that bothers me the most about this, though -- is that it's ugly.
It looks cheap.

 

[Killingbeans]

First of all no where did my statement declare you tested items that were from child labor (as I really do not know if that is true or not), my comment was in response to post's here comparing the EAR's very high retail price, A UK made product to the much far much cheaper knock off's versions or a similar made version coming out china that come from a very unregulated region (China) that also happens to be copied designs from EAR. They sound very similar and very cheap compared to the real McCoy.

That just tells me these products are such simple designs, that they are "ripe for the copying", so to speak.

All they have is their reputation of having a unique "sound", but in reality that part is childs play to copy.

If only they could trumpf the market by appealing to build quality and customer service, but that wouldn't fit the silly mythos about soul-like "sounds" inherent to different types of audio gear.

That is seriously an ignorant response you just made above, Have you not seen all of the many, many knock off audio items coming out of China; it's flagrant. You'll see names like Goldmund, Conrad Johnson, and especially EAR preamps seen on eBay and on AliEpress that come from China? Many, many are stolen IP, Not to mention Cardas, XLO audio, Furutech that are categorically stolen IP, copied and even advertising them under the name they copied them from; and all are unauthorized stolen IP. For direct evidence, You can simply go to eBay and search for EAR phono preamp and see what comes up. On Aliexpress, with the same items they even show you a copy of the schematic they used; it's the same items being sold on eBay.

Copy products are definitely a problem, I'll give you that. But... you just had to mention Furutech

Companies like that make nothing but blatant unapologetic snake-oil products. I really don't cry for them when opportunistic Chinese manufacturers copy their nonsense. It actually seems more like instant karma than anything else.

The audio business as a whole has been hit extremely hard economically, especially companies like EAR by chinese companies making their gear that was originally, created, designed, developed and made elsewhere. All taken from the same schematic without permission.

The audio business has dug their own grave by focusing massively on creating stories about their products doing magical things.

It's not hard for a copycat product to grab a large market share when a marketing blurb similarly flowery to the original does most of the legwork.

Not trying to defend the bootleg industry, but if most of the "qualities" of your product are bogus, you are sort of begging for it.

This is not to take away from companies like Audio-GD and Denefrips that have worked very hard, created their own IP and make very good, high quality, authentic audio gear, they're awesome companies but their items are also not cheap and unfortunately they are just a small minuscule amounts overshadowed by the masses of well documented stolen IP items with fake labeled components inside the audio gear that is being sold for pennies on the dollar and we're guilty of buying it. Of course they're going make it seem like the real McCoy is too expensive.

Audio-GD is probably one of the best examples of overpriced garbage you can find, IMO.

Tons of fancy components thrown at "audiophile approved" typologies stuffed in a box with terrible performance to show for it.

To me it seems like they are just exploiting the hobby in a different way. Instead of copying the nonsense, they make their own version.

 

[DanielT]

I hope to continue to see tube gear measured from time to time. Science is often not truly black and white, like a lot of people think. The 25 years of doing my science based job have taught me to never say never - as sometimes things are literally turned on their head, or things come completely out of nowhere sometimes.
On the topic of tubes, not many people know that tube design never stopped. It's just for satellites, they have their strengths.
Now, I wonder if nagras preamp really measures that well with a tube in it. But, who's gonna buy that one and send it in?
Keep up the healthy debate everyone. But, let it go at the end of the day. It's just audio.

I find this fascinating:

NASA develops speedy vacuum tube prototype for computers in space

Researchers have developed a vacuum tube prototype that is both fast and tough against radiation, making it ideal for computers in space.

www.theverge.com

 

[Sokel]

I find this fascinating:

NASA develops speedy vacuum tube prototype for computers in space

Researchers have developed a vacuum tube prototype that is both fast and tough against radiation, making it ideal for computers in space.

www.theverge.com

Even my crystal ball exploded trying to see the future claims about them through it

 

[fpitas]

I find this fascinating:

NASA develops speedy vacuum tube prototype for computers in space

Researchers have developed a vacuum tube prototype that is both fast and tough against radiation, making it ideal for computers in space.

www.theverge.com

The prototype is called a vacuum channel transistor

Oh dear. That name will have to change to sell them to discriminating audiophiles.

 

[Chilli]

Stereophile measures of three Nagra tubed line level preamps.

Nagra Jazz line preamplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

Nagra HD Preamp

Swiss audio company Nagra won an Innovation Honoree award this year for their ingenious motorized volume control design in the tubed HD Preamp. René Laflamme, based in Montreal himself, describes the product: "The preamp is two channels of mono in a single chassis. There are two Super Cap...

www.stereophile.com

Nagra PL-L preamplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements The Nagra PL-L preserved absolute polarity for both unbalanced and balanced signals, its XLRs appearing to be wired with pin 2 hot, the AES/IEC standard. Its input impedance at 1kHz was lower than specified, at 29k ohms, though this will not be a problem. The maximum...

www.stereophile.com

Thank you

 

[Multicore]

Owned by me.

Listened to by me, probably just once.

Respected technically? Absolutely not.

Do you remember why you listened probably just once? And do you remember what made you buy those recordings in the first place?

 

[antcollinet]

Amir hates tubes, so I don’t think the panther was unexpected.

Amir is absolutely consistent. The evaluation is based on the ability of a device not to distort or introduce noise etc. IE how hi fi components have been objectively reviewed since the early days.

If this device were able to provide a clean signal path it would get "approved" regardless of the technology used to achieve that.

It would be ridiculous to suddenly start rating tube gear positively on it's ability to distort the signal.

 

[Dialectic]

Do you remember why you listened probably just once? And do you remember what made you buy those recordings in the first place?

Here's one that I have and which I recall sounding particularly horrendous: https://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/315

Idiotic mic placement and mixing on this disc. I recall the recording being so bad that it practically eliminated my ability to appreciate the performance.

I bought it because of the good performers on the disc and the (illusory) promise of good sound quality. Waste of money, even purchased used from Academy Records & CDs in NYC.

 

[fpitas]

Tubes never make sense intellectually but within the world of tubes, unlike charge-more-offer-less at least this is doing a nice job with AC mains filtering, etc.

It's $3k and looks kind of cheap. I'm not seeing it as a stand-out bargain, even in that odd world.

 

[horias2000]

Although the SINAD is not great, I have to say that the power supply noise (60Hz and it's harmonics) is very good and the 3rd harmonic is very low at around -95dB. Apart from the first 2nd order harmonic I think it measures really well for a tube pre-amp. I also think that the 2nd order harmonic is intentional to give it a "tube" sound.

 

[JayGilb]

I hope to continue to see tube gear measured from time to time. Science is often not truly black and white, like a lot of people think. The 25 years of doing my science based job have taught me to never say never - as sometimes things are literally turned on their head, or things come completely out of nowhere sometimes.

This is a tube preamp and the science peaked before any of us where born. It's shiny and overpriced, but that is what some people seem to want.
I've been an EE for over 35 years, albeit in the digital realm, and never once had anything turned on its head. It's been a steady progression of minor improvements, all of it understood before being implemented. There were a few minor surprises such as SI related effects, but those we're easily conquered as well.

 

[fpitas]

This is a tube preamp and the science peaked before any of us where born.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This!

OK...I may have been around. But I'm a walking fossil

 

[Mulder]

I also think that the 2nd order harmonic is intentional to give it a "tube" sound.

Not according to Tim De Paravicini himself. He didn´t want to ad any sound at all, and definitively not a tube sound. Ha said he made tube-amps for marketing reasons only.

​

 

[fpitas]

he made tube-amps for marketing reasons only

Lol! Gotta admire the honesty.

 

[Mulder]

Lol! Gotta admire the honesty.

Yes. And he also said people believe they hear a tube sound, but what they hear is different designs.

 

[fpitas]

Yes. And he also said people believe they hear a tube sound, but what they hear is different designs.

I daresay they mainly hear what they believe they'll hear.