Yamaha has unveiled its first planar magnetic headphones at a not so cheap price of $7500 which is due to launch in January 2023.
Built by Japanese craftsmen, these special edition headphones with the model number YH-5000SE have planar magnetic drivers that they call orthodynamic drivers with a word on their exceptionally accurate sonics.
Its weight is a mere 320g which makes it “one of the lightest, high-end headphones in the world.”
It has two types of earpads, each with their own sound character, two detachable cables featuring individual braiding of left and right channels for greater levels of stereo separation.
The YH-5000SE come with two types of ear pads (synthetic leather and suede), a stand, and two types of silver-coated cables (3.5 mm and 4.4 mm). The company will also offer an optional XLR cable, the HXC-SC020 for a whopping $1350.
“Not content to merely produce powerful sound, we pursue an expressive contrast between stillness and motion-achieving low-frequency expression with rich volume and extraordinary transparency. The result is that the full dynamism of the sound is artistically conveyed and engulfs the lister inside an amazing musical world,” the company stated on their website.
“In addition to accurately reproducing the enormous ambience of a huge concert hall and the intimate warmth unique to a small club, YH-5000SE delivers amazing realism and expressive nuance that lets you feel the artist’s position and even the most delicate movements.”
“The result is an extraordinarily immersive feeling, as if you were experiencing the artist perform right in front of you.”
Development of this model started six years ago. Their engineers went through 1000 different diaphragms to find the perfect one for this set. The driver’s diaphragm is claimed to be “significantly lighter” than that of dynamic drivers which puts the expectations of audiophiles quite high.
Yamaha HP-1 was the first model which introduced the world to the orthodnamic driver in 1976 so it remains to be seen how the new one compares to it.
