Mention Yamaha to us and it is the brand’s enviable track record with home cinema amplifiers that comes to mind. Of course, Yamaha is far more than that and has its fingers in many more pies than Mr Kipling. The company is a dominant force in musical instruments, making everything you can think of from grand pianos and electronic keyboards to trumpets and drums. Then there are the motorcycles and pretty much anything you would need to deliver sound in a broadcast or concert environment. Given such a context, maybe it is no surprise that the company’s smallish domestic headphone range tends to get overlooked.
It seems like Yamaha is determined to change that with the introduction of the range-topping YH-5000SE. While there is a precedent for such a product in the form of the HP-1 of the mid-’70s, this is still a move that caught us by surprise. Having talked with the people behind the project, it is clear that Yamaha feels that there is a new market developing for wired headphones at this high-end level and would like to stake a claim before the sector truly takes off. We have to say that the Yamaha YH-5000SE is a fine way to do it.
