Listening
Contents
We like it when an audio brand has a certain sonic signature. That captivates customers and makes it (sometimes) easy to choose. Just ask any musician: guitar players, for one, are fond of their Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul.
Yamaha also makes instruments and the sound signature is often neutral. This is a somewhat dangerous statement though, because Yamaha makes so many instruments in so many price ranges that it is not possible to make this assertion for all Yamaha instruments. Your author has played on quite some Yamaha pianos and grand pianos. These are characterized by a clear and somewhat sonorous sound which is why they are often found on jazz and pop stages. Toucher, overtones and sound are predominantly neutral.
We also hear this tonal neutrality in an amplifier we have previously tested like the Yamaha A-S2200. Calmness, purity and punctuality. The same holds for the amplifier combo from the 1980s in the Leiden studio, the Yamaha BC/C2 pre- and power amplifier, driving the Tannoy Studio Monitor Gold 15. Super neutral and powerful at the same time. This system still reveals everything in a recording, check out this Alpha Audio livestream to hear this for yourself.
When listening to the Yamaha HA-L7A, this is also what immediately stands out. And the greatest of these three is calmness. The silence is impressive. As you know, a low noise floor enhances musical reproduction: in dynamics, soundstage, experience.
And the funny thing with Yamaha is: it does, but it’s not really noticeable, other than finding yourself effortlessly listening to one album after another. There is no clear sound signature that Yamaha  delivers or it has to be that mentioned neutrality. It seems like this is becoming more dominant (and therefore not) when we listen to the Yamaha reference models. It could also be somewhat Japanese to see it as the ultimate goal to see the completeness of things represented in the emptiness of a Tatami mat.
Are you still with us?
We actually want to say with this that the HA-L7A main and preamp plays very accurately, very neutrally, all due to a wonderful, very refined midrange. It’s actually the hallmark of true top quality in sound reproduction; if the midrange is right, you’re good. The rest comes next. The soundstage is wide, sometimes a little too wide to our taste. And we actually like the preamplifier a tad better than the headphone amplifier. In the measurements, we see differences as well. The preamp takes us into the music, and somehow does so more than when we plug in the aforementioned headphones.
In reviewing Yamaha’s YH5000SE headphones, we already mentioned the excellent match with the Sennheiser HDVD800 headphone amplifier. This is still true in comparison with the HA-L7A. It seems like neutrality causes headphones to sound a bit too ‘flat’?
The HA-L7A offers the ability to tweak the sound a bit with the “Sound Field Mode” where the Yamaha cinema DSP is used for an “unparalleled immersion” with any content. There are 6 settings: Cinema, Drama, background music, Concert hall, Outdoor live, Music video. These options are only for use with headphones, so they do not apply to the preamp.
We found these settings nice for watching a movie, but more of an accessory than something that really adds much to the music experience. Some of the effects were a bit artificial. But we are only at the beginning of what DSP can do with immersive music experiences, so Yamaha applying this to this headphone amp is undeniably a signal.
DAC and XLR
It is worth noting here that the DAC does an excellent job. Fast, accurate, complete. Of course, the digital chain in the Alpha studio sound better. It should, considering the setup. The built-in DAC sounds fine and for true enthusiasts it is nice to know that an upgrade with a separate DAC is possible.
It is a pity that the HA-L7A only has a single ended input. In this price range, balanced inputs and outputs are actually something that belong to the basic equipment.
We find the preamplifier very strong; it took us quite a while to figure out that variability of the line output had to be done with a small switch on the back of the unit. It would be nice if this became a choice on the control menu.
