EAR Yoshino 834L Deluxe Preamp Review

[the_brunx]

Love it, On ASR we certainly can rip on manufactures and degrade someone that does not align with Emir's views on scientific based throughly made reviews and measurements but then Emir can not take criticism for himself making a lazy non science subjective based review and deletes's posts calling him out on it. ESR is now becoming worse than the other lazy sites that you always talked down about. "It is not what "I" want. So I rated it accordingly". So much for just for one's & zero's and being non-subjective or thorough.

I think it would be best to put this EAR 834 phono based tube preamp and compare it to other similar phono tube preamps in same price category and see how it fairs and measures. I doubt you would get measurements that are hugely different, if not worse, perhaps better.

PS: As Multicore mentioned above has said, Tim de Paravicini and EAR equipment was used to make many recordings that are owned, listened to and respected by members here on ASR.

Even if you like the sound, No one should buy this product, You can make this sound profile or any other added distortion profile with a very cheap if not free software plugin.
But when it comes to the opposite, you can’t increase Sinad with software.
I think even companies like Universal Audio realized this and moved into the plugin business and discontinued their popular tube amps. But offered now as software emulations

 

[amirm]

- EAR 834L has been on the market place already for over two decades. We may think that it is overpriced, but apparently the market does not think so, as it is still in production. Also, there has been no flood of second hand pieces on the market, so apparently the owners have been quite happy with it.

That and $5 will get you a cup of coffee. So what that something is selling? Everything I test is selling. Some have sold millions. That doesn't make them good or great. And a quick search shows almost a dozen 834Ls for sale: https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=ear+834+l

The data is the data and is in the review. If you are in the market for a preamp, you should look elsewhere. There is nothing in the measurements that show this device to do anything good for the sound it passes through.

 

[amirm]

Being an electrical engineer by formation, I can definitively appreciate the point of getting better ways of reproducing sound. In my experience though beyond a certain point (subjectively around a SINAD of 80-90dB) there are diminishing returns. The only way to experience that level of "fidelity" involves using headphones or really really quiet environments. Even my Dan Clarks, I don't think they really have a dynamic range of more than 80dB.

Your headphones like any speaker has infinite dynamic range. It has no self-noise. So SNR would be dividing by zero getting as big a value you want.

Most people's impression of loudness is wrong as I explained in the video. There is no way you are hearing bass that is just 80 dB. That is barely above threshold of hearing. Loudness cannot be expressed as a single number.

And people have far more sensitive instruments. IEMs can be ruthless when it comes to noise. This is why I test headphone amps at just 50 mv. If you don't get to 90+ dB dynamic range with that meager voltage, you can hear noise. Likewise, people building active speakers, routinely hear tweeter noise/hiss.

But here is the thing, it doesn't cost anything to get state of the art performance. It is not like going form SINAD of 80 dB to 120 you wind up paying 10X the cost. It is actually the other way around that much of expensive gear out there has poor noise performance whereas it is the bargains that are dominating the top of our charts.

 

[amirm]

I think a lot of DIY people have to understand, if you do this as your sole income and have to pay wages, overhead and your home mortgage; it has to be priced accordingly and sell enough of them, work your butt of to keep operations running. If someone is comparing the asking UK made retail price to your parts bill and your evening hobby time to make one, then that's no where being realistic and a disservice. Then you have to look at where it's being made, it's made in the UK, all parts and wages are bought using pounds sterling. One of the most expensive places to make audio gear; it's certainly more expensive than even doing it here in the US, let alone with child labor in china, using stolen IP and fake parts with no work codes to go by, it's all free to them.

There is no evidence of 'child labor' in anything I test. Nor stolen IP. Or fake parts. Last time such an accusation was made the company showed actual invoice from TI proving people like you wrong. To the extent you worry about small businesses staying in business, I suggest you cut out these claims unless you have direct evidence.

Companies are working extremely hard in China to deliver state of the art products to us while pricing them reasonably. You can bet I am not going to reward them by letting nonsense like your claims thrown at them. So take caution in your tone as you post.

 

[amirm]

These retail prices are understandably very high, for me too high for such a product but It's very difficult to stay in business as an audio manufacturer.

Many of these engineers should go do something more useful for their life than build non-performant products and sell them at high prices. Their skills can be put to use in matters that are important and useful to society. They are blinded by their hobby, getting into business that they should not be in. To the extent they choose to stay, than the hardship is theirs to deal with, not ours.

By your logic, if I tried to compete with iPhone by building similar phones and sell them for $5,000 because my costs are so high, I should be rewarded and appreciated. That is not how the world turns.

 

[Bob from Florida]

There is no evidence of 'child labor' in anything I test. Nor stolen IP. Or fake parts. Last time such an accusation was made the company showed actual invoice from TI proving people like you wrong. To the extent you worry about small businesses staying in business, I suggest you cut out these claims unless you have direct evidence.

Companies are working extremely hard in China to deliver state of the art products to us while pricing them reasonably. You can bet I am not going to reward them by letting nonsense like your claims thrown at them. So take caution in your tone as you post.

Have you considered the benefit of closing review threads after 2 pages or the first BS reply? It would keep the reviews clean and on point.

 

[Dialectic]

PS: As Multicore mentioned above has said, Tim de Paravicini and EAR equipment was used to make many recordings that are owned, listened to and respected by members here on ASR.

Owned by me.

Listened to by me, probably just once.

Respected technically? Absolutely not.

 

[Silver Chips]

There is no evidence of 'child labor' in anything I test. Nor stolen IP. Or fake parts. Last time such an accusation was made the company showed actual invoice from TI proving people like you wrong. To the extent you worry about small businesses staying in business, I suggest you cut out these claims unless you have direct evidence.

Companies are working extremely hard in China to deliver state of the art products to us while pricing them reasonably. You can bet I am not going to reward them by letting nonsense like your claims thrown at them. So take caution in your tone as you post.

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 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.

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.

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.

Sorry, I went far off topic and won't comment again on this thread.

 

[enricoclaudio]

Thanks @amirm for another great review. This review makes appreciate my Benchmark HPA4 even more. Can’t imagine who in his sanity would purchase this over the Benchmark LA4 pre amp at the same price.

 

[fricc]

Your headphones like any speaker has infinite dynamic range. It has no self-noise. So SNR would be dividing by zero getting as big a value you want.

Sorry, I've been imprecise, I was thinking about distortion free range... if my DAC + AMP has a distortion free range of, say, 120dB and the headphones reduce that to 80, the extra range is kind of wasted on me, isn't it?

But here is the thing, it doesn't cost anything to get state of the art performance. It is not like going form SINAD of 80 dB to 120 you wind up paying 10X the cost. It is actually the other way around that much of expensive gear out there has poor noise performance whereas it is the bargains that are dominating the top of our charts.

Yes, indeed we can have 120dB of distortion free range at a very reasonable cost this days. Not that it really makes a big difference...

I am really enjoying my KEF active speakers, how much distortion free range do we really have there? Even a good CD player might be overkill...
I stream everything through AirPlay this days. I still have a dedicated Mac Mini attached to the speakers with the SPDIF cable. Aside from the occasional wifi glitch, I can't tell the difference between a 24/96 track playing from the Mac and the same track streamed over AirPlay at 16/44.1.

We now have gear that far exceeds what we can actually do with it. I think we buy this stuff because it is kind of fun. At a certain point though everything becomes more or less the same, hard to really hear the difference between two reasonably competent amplifiers.

Tinkering with my old turntable, vinyl records, cart, arm and so on I'm constantly astounded by how good the music coming out of it actually sounds. Not as practical as streaming from my phone, but it is a marvel of human ingenuity to have found a convincing way to represent music with a device that maybe has 60-70dB of distortion free range in some portion of the audio band.

- Fabio

 

[JiiPee]

That and $5 will get you a cup of coffee. So what that something is selling? Everything I test is selling. Some have sold millions. That doesn't make them good or great. And a quick search shows almost a dozen 834Ls for sale: https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=ear+834+l

The data is the data and is in the review. If you are in the market for a preamp, you should look elsewhere. There is nothing in the measurements that show this device to do anything good for the sound it passes through.

No need to get upset over my opinions. I did not claim that selling something proves that the product is technically good. It was just a comment about pricing. In a market economy, it is the market that decides if a product is overpriced or not. You are of course entitled to decide yourself what is overpriced from Your perspective, but then again, so am I, and all the rest of consumers.

We absolutely agree that the data is the data - after all, the reason I'm reading ASR is because it provides data. However, we all have the right to draw our own conclusions from the available data.

I have never owned any EAR Yoshino products and have not listened EAR 834L, but based on the data and my own general experience in audio equipment, I strongly suspect that the performace is good enough in the sense that I could not detect any problems in a controlled blind test. Yes, I'm totally aware that there are lots of preamps with higher SINAD score and lower price, but to me that is not so important as it appears to be to You.

I like the old-fashioned look and feel of this little preamp. I appreciate the tape loop feature, and as I have mentioned in another thread, ethical and geopolitical aspects do influence my buying decisions.

 

[JSmith]

Let's face some facts... this product is $3000, for a preamp no less.

The tubes are inside, so one can't even show off the "glow".

Channel separation is poor, audible or not, the fact is it's poor in comparison to other products.

The harmonic distortion, although high, is likely inaudible... for $3K it should not be there at all though.

The sub-bass boost starting at 60Hz is most unwanted, although minor in level.

Not to mention;

As per the internal pictures posted, the parts used are minimal and the device doesn't represent value in any sense of the word.

In 2023 there is no need to buy this... in fact I can't see why anyone would wish to.


JSmith

 

[amirm]

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;

The only ignorant response is from you. Without any specific knowledge of the audio company products I review, you painted all of these companies with a broad brush as if the entire country runs the same way. You want to talk about other products that we don't deal with, go to another forum where they discuss those. Here, you better have your facts straight before making the serious accusations you made.

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.

How do you know they have been hit hard? You have their financials and know that the customer that would normally buy their product is running to Aliexpress to buy a knock off? I trust not. And how original are the EAR circuits? You sure they didn't copy others who came before him/them?

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.

Oh, did you say Audio-GD? That company that posts measurements that are not remotely true? https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...audio-gd-nfb28-28-dac-and-headphone-amp.5147/

My measurement:

Distortion product at -55 dB. Here is theirs:

Distortion at -100 dB! See? We do call them as they are.

 

[sprellemannen]

Thanks @amirm for another great review. This review makes appreciate my Benchmark HPA4 even more. Can’t imagine who in his sanity would purchase this over the Benchmark LA4 pre amp at the same price.

I agree. Your desk setup is really great.

 

[DonR]

Looks: ick!
Build quality: ick!
Performance: ick!
Price: ick!

 

[Tom C]

I expect the real reason most people buy this product is that they simply don’t know any better. Before ASR, it was VERY difficult for me to critically evaluate and compare products, both because of limited knowledge, and because hard data is scarce. This designer and his products have gotten plenty of hype and positive press over the years, so not surprising many units have been sold. When you don’t have good data to base your decisions on, you base your decisions on the data that you do have, even if it’s bad data.

 

[AdamG]

Sorry, I went far off topic and won't comment again on this thread.

Promises promises. If I had a nickel every time someone said this and a few posts later they post again. Let me give you a helping hand and remove any uncontrollable urge to post in this thread again. Happy to help.

 

[laudio]

If only somebody would make a 2 channel preamp (solid state) with an input selector like this. So many good power amps to choose from these days. So few actual real preamps other than DACs with maybe an extra analog input to buy.

At least this tube amp put in the extras, regardless of measurements. Nobody else does!


Finding the right preamp (be it vintage or whatever) is the hardest thing to do other than speakers. Power amps and DAC measurement don't cover the spectrum on what users need - what users need is the equivalent of good car stereo head unit. Add speakers and amplification next.

 

[GXAlan]

Have you not seen all of the many, many knock off audio items coming out of China; it's flagrant.

Respecting IP is very important to me and I am very much against counterfeit products or stolen IP. However, I do believe in the concept of expired patents. The EAR phono came out in 1996 which apparently is very similar to the design in this setup, and we are more than 20 years out so the circuitry may not be that special anymore.

The THX AAA patents will expire 7 years from now, and at that point, it’s fair game for all to use.

Most of the super-star Chinese products use IP from companies like ESS, AKM, and TI so we are seeing the owners of the IP getting their fair reimbursement.

The valid concerns with buying from China is the lack of customer service when dealing with components, repairs, customer support when weighed against products you can find at Magnolia/Best Buy or other “well established” company with global distribution and support.

Political discussions only lead to extra work for the mods and it’s fair to acknowledge that legitimate Chinese companies have to pay taxes, and those taxes are spent according to the goals of a one-party government, namely the CCP. It’s also fair to acknowledge that no one picks the country they were born in.

Wanting to minimize your ultimate contribution to the CCP doesn’t mean that companies like EAR get an automatic pass on price, performance, etc.

There’s nothing wrong with Amir’s measurements. There is nothing wrong with his panther rating - most people aren’t going to find this to be a good buy most of the time. He doesn’t like tube distortion.

This beats the Primaluna preamp, and EAR is a company that charges $900 for the chrome finish. People pay extra for automotive paint all the time. This might be the right preamp for someone — and that is perfectly OK.

Amir has noted that distortion of the Freya+ had audible grunge. This means that the tube difference met his threshold of audibility and that grunge may be interpreted by other individuals as something euphonic. Think about your own interest in the current Top Hits on the radio/streaming.

If only somebody would make a 2 channel preamp (solid state) with an input selector like this. So many good power amps to choose from these days. So few actual real preamps other than DACs with maybe an extra analog input to buy.

At least this tube amp put in the extras, regardless of measurements. Nobody else does!

The tape loop is valuable if it’s a proper tape loop, as it would allow you to insert DSP or equalizers. The tape loop in this case isn’t that clean, so it’s less clear of its value. It also is important to know if it’s a true tape monitor or just a fixed level rec out. The Schiit Freya S is a good preamp with input selection and good channel balance. The Freya+ and Freya Noval give you tubes if you want tubes. They don’t have tape loops though.

I think the real question for the EAR 834L proponents: would you pick this over another tube preamp like the Schiit Freya+ or Freya Noval if you had to start from scratch? If so, why?

 

[computer-audiophile]

It's sad that such unthinking behavior is defended at ASR. Many members here understand tube gear all too well, but they do not defend it on the basis of being"sought-after".

Ever heard of Immanuel Kant? Sapere aude?
"have courage to use your own mind!" (motto of the Enlightenment)