Post by Bigman80 on Nov 17, 2020 18:11:04 GMT
Initial Impressions:
First to land in the Bigman abode were the Yam's, so i'll start there.
The Yam's have a split reputation in our little hifi world. Renowned and revered by some, avoided by others. You don't have to look hard to see reviews or comments suggesting that these audio dinosaurs (age) are bright, harsh, bass light, unreliable (caps failing taking a tweeter or mid out) etc.....Honestly, it's enough to make you think twice. However, I didn't when I spotted a pair for sale on PFM.
My experience with Yams is very limited. In fact the only pair I heard were at MCRU on the end of over £20k worth of Nick Gorham's very fine work. Some say the finest! So when my recent speaker woes led me into the darkness, the Yams shone as a very bright light. I did my due diligence and spoke to those in the know. Simon of this parish offered some particularly sound advice in regard to suitability with the room and placement.
Talking to Angus revealed he had a pair once upon a time. We spoke at length about his experience and I felt I was getting a good idea about how I could get these working in my nightmare room.
In the flesh these beasts are bigger than I remembered. Obviously MCRU have a bigger room than I do lol
I connected them up and let them warm up for an hour. I'd kept the car warm all the way back from collecting them and felt enough time had passed to give them a listen. I am really into guitar music and thats pretty much when they hit me with everything I could want from a speaker stuck on the floor lol
I made a temporary stand out of bricks and lifted them up about 30cms.
Now this arrangement is not ideal but it gives me enough to see what happens.
I have been listening to Hans Theessink a lot lately so why not start there. Instantly im taken in by the utterly human vocals that surround the speakers. The Acoustic guitars are snappy and tonally supple. There's an almost visible connection to the music via the crazy good imaging they produce. I am rightly surprised by this. I hadnt expected this at all. In fact Quite the opposite.
The soundstage isnt as deep as I'd hoped but again, the Yams are not designed to deliver that.
One of the things I had become quite accustomed to in recent times was a seamless HF to LF range. The Yam's have not quite achieved this seamless transition from top to bottom. There is a characturistic change once you get past the Midrange frequencies and into the LF. There is no doubt here that the 12” bass driver is made of a different material.
The HF to MF are stunningly articulate and distortion free, but the LF have a bit of a plod about them. Admittedly, this could be a floor/speaker issue as I am feeling the energy from the LF through the floor. I have a plan to solve this and I suspect this will tighten things up a bit.
Oddly, one of my earliest impressions of this speaker was that there is something “in the way” …....... More on this later.
However, overall, I am absolutely enamoured with them. They dont care what happens so far. They play everything and they just vanoish....a speaker this size just vanishes from the room.
More on the Yam's later.....Now the KEFs
I decided whilst waiting for the Yams that I should have an alternative, just in case. The KEF's were not on my radar. They popped up after a conversation with Jimbo. He'd heard them and rated them but did suggested they may need a sub to get them into the realm of acceptability.
I found a really nice pair for £500 and bought them
The Kefs stunned whilst still in the box....i have never seen a heavier speaker with those dimensions. Once opened, I was floored by their build quality. As if they had been sculpted, rather than made. The finish is stunningly high quality and the driver boing copper coloured contrast perfectly with the black piano finish on the cabinets.
I put them on the sand filled Atacama stands and hit play on the same Hans Theessink track. WOW......The resolution was instantly attention grabbing. Tonally, it had lost the gravitas of the Yams, but it was still fuller than the Quadral Galan 9 I had auditioned recently. The imaging was just mind blowing. Deep, wide and high. They sounded far bigger than I expected.
The guitars sounded fast, really fast. They had good intonation and timing was phenomenal. Every now and again though, there would be an audible reminder that you had mini-monitors at play.
A vocal or an instrument would be missing a few octaves of weight or chest cavity. I lumped the Sub in and spent a bit of time dialing it in.
The lower frequencies have gelled well but the KEFs presentation is leaving me a little cold. It ULTRA controlled, which leaves very little emotion coming through. Other than that, they were pretty damn remarkable. BUT with busier stuff, I was finding it hard to follow everything. There is a congestion that is muddling things..........i'd forgotten to put the isolation feet under the speakers lol
Some sorbothane hemispheres were quickly added between speaker and stand.
I returned to the playlist and started again. JEEZ....what a difference. Huge space in the soundstage, congestion gone, tonality improved, insight improved, micro and macro detail improved and I am being 100% honest here......i LOVED IT.
There is still an air of there being almost too much control and nothing I have done has removed that feeling. That said, it's not intrusive and let me just say this....the bass out of them is tight, fast and weighty. They have no right to be so good in the bass given their size. Outstanding stuff.
I decided to try The Beatles – Let It Be.
I don't play this track often, If at all.....too much sentiment attached to it. I rarely make it through in one piece.
I made it through on the KEFs quite easily. The Yams.......I had to stop. It got to me instantly.
And that boys and girls, is the only thing that matters to me, ultimately. Yes, I know the virtues of ultra top end quality speakers and how they remove the barriers between you and the recording...but they don't do what the yams do.
The Yams give you everything but retain the connective tissue between the recording and your soul. They don't strip away the soul in order to impress on you the detail and information.
The Kefs, they are pretty much a 10/10 in every respect. Build, Sound quality, Performance, Value for Money, Looks, Ease of use, positioning, imaging....you name it, they do it. I am mega impressed, but unmoved. My only criticism, that may not be a fault of the speaker, is that at times they sounded like they were forcing the sound on you. I do wonder if the Neurochrome may be a bit much for them? I will try them on my Chinese T amp, and report back. I certainly havent read that on any review so I think that may be a unique situation here.
Find me a better speaker of this size for the money......i'll wait
The Yams will stay and get new crossovers, wiring and I will implement the idea I have to reject the energy from hitting the floor boards. This I think will remove that sense of something being in the way. The KEF's will stay whilst the work is done!
There are better speakers, be in no doubt. But for the money, my room issues and my taste....the Yams are a big hit.
I'll share more as I go on.
First to land in the Bigman abode were the Yam's, so i'll start there.
The Yam's have a split reputation in our little hifi world. Renowned and revered by some, avoided by others. You don't have to look hard to see reviews or comments suggesting that these audio dinosaurs (age) are bright, harsh, bass light, unreliable (caps failing taking a tweeter or mid out) etc.....Honestly, it's enough to make you think twice. However, I didn't when I spotted a pair for sale on PFM.
My experience with Yams is very limited. In fact the only pair I heard were at MCRU on the end of over £20k worth of Nick Gorham's very fine work. Some say the finest! So when my recent speaker woes led me into the darkness, the Yams shone as a very bright light. I did my due diligence and spoke to those in the know. Simon of this parish offered some particularly sound advice in regard to suitability with the room and placement.
Talking to Angus revealed he had a pair once upon a time. We spoke at length about his experience and I felt I was getting a good idea about how I could get these working in my nightmare room.
In the flesh these beasts are bigger than I remembered. Obviously MCRU have a bigger room than I do lol
I connected them up and let them warm up for an hour. I'd kept the car warm all the way back from collecting them and felt enough time had passed to give them a listen. I am really into guitar music and thats pretty much when they hit me with everything I could want from a speaker stuck on the floor lol
I made a temporary stand out of bricks and lifted them up about 30cms.
Now this arrangement is not ideal but it gives me enough to see what happens.
I have been listening to Hans Theessink a lot lately so why not start there. Instantly im taken in by the utterly human vocals that surround the speakers. The Acoustic guitars are snappy and tonally supple. There's an almost visible connection to the music via the crazy good imaging they produce. I am rightly surprised by this. I hadnt expected this at all. In fact Quite the opposite.
The soundstage isnt as deep as I'd hoped but again, the Yams are not designed to deliver that.
One of the things I had become quite accustomed to in recent times was a seamless HF to LF range. The Yam's have not quite achieved this seamless transition from top to bottom. There is a characturistic change once you get past the Midrange frequencies and into the LF. There is no doubt here that the 12” bass driver is made of a different material.
The HF to MF are stunningly articulate and distortion free, but the LF have a bit of a plod about them. Admittedly, this could be a floor/speaker issue as I am feeling the energy from the LF through the floor. I have a plan to solve this and I suspect this will tighten things up a bit.
Oddly, one of my earliest impressions of this speaker was that there is something “in the way” …....... More on this later.
However, overall, I am absolutely enamoured with them. They dont care what happens so far. They play everything and they just vanoish....a speaker this size just vanishes from the room.
More on the Yam's later.....Now the KEFs
I decided whilst waiting for the Yams that I should have an alternative, just in case. The KEF's were not on my radar. They popped up after a conversation with Jimbo. He'd heard them and rated them but did suggested they may need a sub to get them into the realm of acceptability.
I found a really nice pair for £500 and bought them
The Kefs stunned whilst still in the box....i have never seen a heavier speaker with those dimensions. Once opened, I was floored by their build quality. As if they had been sculpted, rather than made. The finish is stunningly high quality and the driver boing copper coloured contrast perfectly with the black piano finish on the cabinets.
I put them on the sand filled Atacama stands and hit play on the same Hans Theessink track. WOW......The resolution was instantly attention grabbing. Tonally, it had lost the gravitas of the Yams, but it was still fuller than the Quadral Galan 9 I had auditioned recently. The imaging was just mind blowing. Deep, wide and high. They sounded far bigger than I expected.
The guitars sounded fast, really fast. They had good intonation and timing was phenomenal. Every now and again though, there would be an audible reminder that you had mini-monitors at play.
A vocal or an instrument would be missing a few octaves of weight or chest cavity. I lumped the Sub in and spent a bit of time dialing it in.
The lower frequencies have gelled well but the KEFs presentation is leaving me a little cold. It ULTRA controlled, which leaves very little emotion coming through. Other than that, they were pretty damn remarkable. BUT with busier stuff, I was finding it hard to follow everything. There is a congestion that is muddling things..........i'd forgotten to put the isolation feet under the speakers lol
Some sorbothane hemispheres were quickly added between speaker and stand.
I returned to the playlist and started again. JEEZ....what a difference. Huge space in the soundstage, congestion gone, tonality improved, insight improved, micro and macro detail improved and I am being 100% honest here......i LOVED IT.
There is still an air of there being almost too much control and nothing I have done has removed that feeling. That said, it's not intrusive and let me just say this....the bass out of them is tight, fast and weighty. They have no right to be so good in the bass given their size. Outstanding stuff.
I decided to try The Beatles – Let It Be.
I don't play this track often, If at all.....too much sentiment attached to it. I rarely make it through in one piece.
I made it through on the KEFs quite easily. The Yams.......I had to stop. It got to me instantly.
And that boys and girls, is the only thing that matters to me, ultimately. Yes, I know the virtues of ultra top end quality speakers and how they remove the barriers between you and the recording...but they don't do what the yams do.
The Yams give you everything but retain the connective tissue between the recording and your soul. They don't strip away the soul in order to impress on you the detail and information.
The Kefs, they are pretty much a 10/10 in every respect. Build, Sound quality, Performance, Value for Money, Looks, Ease of use, positioning, imaging....you name it, they do it. I am mega impressed, but unmoved. My only criticism, that may not be a fault of the speaker, is that at times they sounded like they were forcing the sound on you. I do wonder if the Neurochrome may be a bit much for them? I will try them on my Chinese T amp, and report back. I certainly havent read that on any review so I think that may be a unique situation here.
Find me a better speaker of this size for the money......i'll wait
The Yams will stay and get new crossovers, wiring and I will implement the idea I have to reject the energy from hitting the floor boards. This I think will remove that sense of something being in the way. The KEF's will stay whilst the work is done!
There are better speakers, be in no doubt. But for the money, my room issues and my taste....the Yams are a big hit.
I'll share more as I go on.
