This is a review and detailed measurements of the Ear Yoshino 834L Deluxe Tube (Valve) stereo preamp designed by Tim De Paravicini. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $3095 (£2,699.00).
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I am not a fan of chrome front panel but realize this is a personal thing. The case is stamped sheet metal which feels cheap compared to that. Controls are large and easy to manipulate.
Back panel sports gold plated RCAs but they seem kind of tarnished/dull:
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Note much else to say than let's measure it.
Ear Yoshino 834L Deluxe Tube (Valve) Preamp Measurements
As usual, we set the input to 2 volts and adjust the volume for "unity gain" (same output voltage):
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We are heavily distortion limited. 2nd harmonic is dominant by far. Noise level is actually good:
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I was impressed by the wide bandwidth but found the very low frequency rise strange:
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Channel separation is quite poor for a stereo product:
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Distortion doesn't depend on frequency although it is quite high:
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We see that reason for high distortion is very early saturation:
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Volume control accuracy is good:
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Conclusions
I guess if you are a tube guy and want lots of second harmonic distortion, you have it here. I am disappointed with the packaging and performance in the absolute.
I can't recommend the Ear Yoshino 834L Deluxe Tube (Valve) Preamp. Use a transparent preamp for heaven's sake and save lots of money to boot.
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