New Yamaha HL-L7A looks awesome!

[restorer-john]

Don't know about you guys, but this looks absolutely fabulous. Just dropped in my inbox today from Yamaha Australia.

Not cheap. Not even reasonable. But I want one, just the same.

Audiophile - Yamaha - Music - Australia

au.yamaha.com

HA-L7A BEHIND THE SCENES - Yamaha - Music - Australia

au.yamaha.com

 

[Phorize]

They look extremely classy, really nice to see Yamaha showing the rest of the world what product engineerung really looks like. Nearly 5 grand in the U.K though, ouch.

 

[Music1969]

They look extremely classy, really nice to see Yamaha showing the rest of the world what product engineerung really looks like. Nearly 5 grand in the U.K though, ouch.

In terms of engineerung, their flagship headphones (that probably goes with this amp?) is average at best.
The headphones look amazing though.

Maybe the amp measures average too?

 

[soundwave76]

I have to disagree with you sir. The headphones look great, but that amp is just... weird. I actually saw and tried these both two weeks ago in the Helsinki Hifi Expo. It was a very noisy area so impossible to say a lot about the sound, but oh boy those headphones were light and comfortable!

 

[JSmith]

that amp is just... weird.

Agree, not keen at all either on the design... not my cup of tea when spending on Yamaha.


JSmith

 

[DavidMcRoy]

What's going on over there in "the west wing?"

 

[delta76]

Guess I'm lucky, the design is not appealing to me, no craving to have one ...

 

[amirm]

Looks really strange to me as well....

 

[GXAlan]

Some non stylized shots

I don’t think the transformers can be separated from the user interface box. Maybe there’s some sort of headphone stand that fits in the gap. It looks odd to me too, and I generally consider myself a fan of Yamaha looks/design.

I like the idea of sound fields for headphones. With a Yamaha AVR/AVP, their “CinemaDSP HD3” had virtual surround with headphones which worked well with the MCH content.

 

[delta76]

Remind me a lot of

 

[Music1969]

The dangers of starting a thread about something looking good !

Are the same as the dangers starting a thread of something sounding good.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Looks strange to me as well... I don't understand these kind of flat knobs with such a high end vibe... From Yam, I would have expected something more rectangular, sober, and with VU meters...

 

[restorer-john]

Looks strange to me as well... I don't understand these kind of flat knobs with such a high end vibe... From Yam, I would have expected something more rectangular, sober, and with VU meters...

Yes it looks a little different, but that's the point. I've been waiting for the Japanese to embrace the best things about the 80s and even have a nod to the tube era with either chassis mounted capacitors or enclosed transformers. They've done it here, with an almost cross between Nakamichi, a field recorder aesthetic and a distributed power station building-style look with those toroids encased and ventilated.

It's designed to be looked at from the seated postion at an angle and touched. Those flat wheel knobs are brilliant as they are exactly where your right hand would be.

I'm going to see if I can get my hands on one to play with.

Yamaha have made some very aesthetically brave products, does anyone remember the classic B-6 Power amp from 1980?

 

[markanini]

The astetics are uniquely cool.

 

[Soria Moria]

Are any of the DSP features good? Asking since they apparently have them on other products(?).

 

[restorer-john]

In terms of engineerung, their flagship headphones (that probably goes with this amp?) is average at best.

I'd be prepared to wager those headphones would sound really excellent.

 

[thewas]

Yamaha have made some very aesthetically brave products, does anyone remember the classic B-6 Power amp from 1980?

I do, but I am afraid most hifi fans are rather conservative when it comes to their hobby so I guess such products don't sell well.

 

[soundwave76]

I will add that the usability also sucked. Only tried to adjust the volume, but that was awful. Traditional volume knob is waaay better.

 

[soundwave76]

Looks really strange to me as well....

I hope these headphones could be measured one day. Lets skip the amp

 

[cubanmetalguy]

I like it! They look like if the HD 800S and the Focal Utopia had a baby.