Yamaha Launches the HA-L7A Audiophile-level Headphone Amplifier
Yamaha is a well-known brand, and most of us, if not all, would have used one of the company's products or at least heard of them before. The Japanese company has now announced its first-ever headphone amplifier, the HA-L7A, employing its patented technologies.
The headphone amplifier and DAC combo comes in an interesting L-shaped design, with two toroidal transformers mounted on the main frame above the power supply board to minimise the power supply path. The power supply also has independent transformers for the minute-signal circuitry in the front stage, as well as the amplifier section in the second stage.
The HA-L7A is running on the ESS ES9038PRO DAC chip, with a dedicated master clock and crystal oscillator with ultra-low phase noise. The chip also has a built-in eight-channel D/A converter that applies four-channel conversion to the left and right sides. With an output of 1,000mW + 1,000mW, the amplifier is powerful enough to drive most premium headphones, in addition to the obvious choice, Yamaha's own flagship YH-5000SE headphones.
Yamaha has also implemented its Floating and Balanced Power Amplifier technology here, optimising it for the headphone amplifier with four sets of output stage circuits floating above the ground. Headphones can be driven without alternating between balanced and unbalanced, to avoid sound quality discrepancies from different output terminals. All circuitry is also independent of the ground, resulting in eliminating external ground-related noise.
Made out of aluminium, the chassis is sandblasted for a textural feel, with the master volume and mode selector dials located on the right most edge. Next to those dials, there's an OLED display for information such as the input source, sampling frequency, volume and which Sound Field preset is active. The chassis is made with rigid parts, including an 8mm thick extruded aluminium top, with the toroidal transformers mounted on a 2mm-thick steel plate to eliminate any negative effects from vibrations. Weighing in at 5.3kg, the HA-L7A has dampers between each steel foot and the bottom panel for even more vibration dampening.
Yamaha's Sound Field effects are found in the company's AV receivers, and headphones, have been extended to the HA-L7A. Six presets are optimised for different use cases, such as music, videos, etc. In addition, the amplifier supports DSD 11.2MHz, otherwise known as DSD256, as well as 32-bit /384kHz PCM files. There's also a Pure Direct function that bypasses all circuitry not present in the original source, such as DSP processing and DAC converters for analog audio.
As for connectivity, the HA-L7A offers a 4-pin XLR balanced headphone jack, a 4.4mm balanced port, an unbalanced 6.3mm port, as well as a variety of other ports on the rear, including coaxial, optical, USB-B and built-in XLR and RCA pre-out/line-out ports. With those, the HA-L7A can even be used as a D/A converter or preamp.
Priced in Australia at $6,999 RRP, the Yamaha HA-L7A will be available in Q4 2023.
Yamaha's HA-L7A Headphone Amplifier/DAC will make its Australian debut at the 2023 StereoNET Hi-Fi & AV Show, October 20-22, at the Pullman Hotel & Convention Centre, Albert Park, Melbourne. Tickets are on sale now.
For more information visit Yamaha
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Cheryl Tan
After diving down the custom IEMs rabbit hole since she was 18, Cheryl has embarked on a long journey trying out as many audio products as possible ever since. She’s still waiting for the day a company can create a pair of true wireless earbuds that sound just as good as wired earphones.
Posted in: Headphones | HiFi Show
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