While Terry was getting the Yamamoto up and running, I took a stroll through his shop to see what I would see. You never know what you might spot at Terry's Place. The first thing I encountered was a forest of Abby single driver loudspeakers in waiting. Then I ran across a pair of solid -- not veneered -- maple Abbys, with a set of teak Abbys keeping them company and a matching teak subwwofer thrown in for good measure. Then I ran across a particularly patriotic pair of Stars & Stripes Abbys in the paint room, along with a pair of cool suntanned Hawaiian Abbys in the spray booth. Upon further snooping, I came across a partially constructed Nola loudspeaker (Terry produces cabinets for Nola, formerly known as Alon), a group of unidentified cabinets lurking in the background, a snazzy set of rosewood Nola cabinet fronts and a gorgeous rosewood Nola cabinet partially completed.


Thinking I better get back to the music, I returned to Terry's listening room just in time to hear music emanating from his pair of Studio BEN ES loudspeakers with their full-range Fostex drivers and horn-loaded super tweeters fed from the Yamamoto A-08. Terry had hooked up the Yamamoto to an Eric Kingsbury designed and built Mobius linestage that sells for $995. The preamplifier is a novel and very good-sounding design that uses a divided chassis with the power supply on one side and the audio circuit on the other side. With the exception of a pair of 6SN7 tubes, there's nothing in the middle. It was a perfect sonic match with the Yamamoto and the big Cain & Cain horns.

With Terry's 100dB-sensitive Studio BEN ES, the Yamamoto 45 sounded fast, smooth, detailed, dynamic and musical. Bass extension and resolution were nothing short of remarkable. The Studio BENs were running full-range without a sub and they didn't need one. Terry remarked a number of times about the excellent bass quality of the Yamamoto - a perfect match for the speakers. We listened to a number of songs through the VRS audio supercomputer which is a very nice digital front end that people are talking about as being a breakthrough approach to high quality digital sound. Then Terry fired up his Teres Audio turntable with one of Harry Pearson's -- one of my all-time favorite audio journalists -- recommendations from his Super Disk List: The Missouri Breaks soundtrack by John Williams. We were both stunned to silence. I hate to break it to you but good vinyl is still an

order of magnitude better than the best digital - it's not even close! With the Yamamoto, vinyl & horns, the sound had it all: 3-D imaging, intense palpability, dynamics, pinpoint soundstaging, natural and engaging tonal colors, ultra-high resolution, bass slam, an enormous sense of space and foot-tappin' musicality.


"The Yamamoto is one of the best amplifiers I've ever heard on the Studio BENs," said Terry. I think we were both a little surprised by the ultra-high level of performance that little Yammy could deliver. "It's so good you would expect it to sell for $10,000, " said Terry. "With this level of parts quality, they can't be making any money at $2250," he observed. "I don't know how they can do it," marvelled Terry. It does make you wonder. The Yamamoto A-08 is a cutting-edge SET amp in every regard yet reasonably priced. They stand to sell a boat-load of these once word gets out how good they are.


It took Terry and I a while to get to the Garrard plinth project - we were so enamored listening to the 45 amplifier. To give the Yamamoto another challenge, Terry brought out a new pair of loudspeakers, a smaller version of the I-Ben double horns which uses a single specialty Fostex that's very popular in Japan for its tremendous imaging and soundstaging abilities. The Imaging Mother IM Ben (my moniker, not Terry's) will be debuting at the 2005 CES for $4500 if I remember correctly. It was with the 92dB IM Ben that we hit upon the limitations of the Yamamoto. When pressed hard by the more difficult load, it ran out of steam evidenced by becoming a bit lean and shrill - not terribly so but noticeable over its usual suave self. If you want to hear the considerable prowess of the 45 Yamamoto, you'll have to stick with speakers closer to 100 than 90dB.


For kicks, Terry then brought out the Nelson Pass-designed FirstWatt F-1 to use on the IM Bens. The Pass amp was a match made in heaven - tons of detail, extremely fast response, natural warmth and tonality, great bass response. It's interesting that when you listen to really fast amplifiers like the FirstWatt or Yamamoto, you notice that they track the musical signal so quickly to make them sound smooth and natural. Slower amps actually sound coarser and jerkier. With digital sources, the smaller the sampling step size, the closer it approximates the signal to give a smoother curve. The larger the step size, the more the curve looks and sounds like a saw blade. The same thing's true with amplifiers: the faster they are, the smoother they get and the more natural the sound. That's what you get with the Pass and Yamamoto. The IM Bens are stunning with the Pass. I've never heard anything image and soundstage as well. The image density became so tangible that they had that reach-out-and-touch-me-coz-I'm-real thing going.


There are some very fine products entering the audio world and they are coming at fair prices for the world-class level of performance they bring. With products like the Yamamoto, IM Bens and FirstWatt, you no longer have to be a rich to enjoy the very best in sound and music-making ability. Hallelujah! Terry loved the Yamamoto in his system as did I. The Yamamoto's one of the most impressive single-ended amps ever sold to the public and there's no sky-high pricing involved - $2250. Cheers to the fair-minded audio everymen of Yamamoto-San and Brian Bowdle. "It's one of the best amps I've ever heard," offered Terry Cain. Yep.


The Yamamoto Pub Crawl
Leave it to Pete to come up with an absolutely terrific idea. "Hey Jeff, this weekend Harry Zweben from Two Bald Guys Audio in Portland is coming over with some gear for me to hear. What do you say we take the Yamamoto 45 on an audio version of a pub crawl? We could have lunch at the Sageport Grill after Harry gets to town, then go to Bill's and give the Yamamoto a whirl on his Cain & Cain double horn Bens followed by his Edgarhorns - he's been wanting to hear the Yamamoto in his systems. Then we could do a session at Stephæn's and listen to the Yamamoto on his system. Terry said Stephæn has got to hear the Yamamoto. After that, we could head over to your place for a listening session on your Duos, and finally we'd head over to my place, do some listening on my system and have dinner. Whaddya say?" I said, "Pete, you are genius - freaking yes!'


Audio is a nice hobby that's all about fun and listening to music. It's about spending time with your friends, enjoying their fellowship, having fun with your collective gear and music and making your life a little bit better because of it. It's a great way to meet new friends, too, and if you keep it fun and stay within your budget, audio becomes something that energizes your life and doesn't add stressors to it. What better way to have some audio fun than an audio "club brawl"?


Pub Number 1: Bill's Place
On Saturday after Harry'd arrived in town from Portland, Bill, Harry, Pete, Stephæn, Terry & Leslie Cain and I met at the Sageport for a nice lunch. After chatting & chowing, we headed over to Bill's Place for some music and gear. We first checked out Bill's collection of pianos in the piano room while Stephæn entertained us with a quick number.


Pete meanwhile did equipment shuffling duties and plugged the Yamamoto into Bill's system. First up for a listen was Bill's single-driver Cain & Cain double horn that Bens augments with the huge Bruce Edgar bass horn. Pete ran Bill's Ah! Tjoeb vacuum tube CD player straight into the Yamamoto and used the player's volume control for adjusting levels. As soon as the music started, we all scrambled for seats. After listening for a few moments, TASmanian devil Stephæn said a playful, "I hate you Bill, I hate your system and I hate your gear. Wipe that damn smile off your face!" Bill's system sounded so good that its owner is looking into buying the Yamamoto A-08 review sample - he's assuming I won't buy it for myself? Not necessarily a good assumption, Bill!


The combination of Cain & Cain Bens, Edgarhorn bass, Ah! Toeb CD player and the Yamamoto 45 amplifier gave the most tangible sense of air and soundspace I've ever encountered from a system. I credit the Edgarhorn bass module with adding more air'n'space to the Cain & Cain horns than I've previously heard 'em produce on their own even when used with a more conventional subwoofer module. "Yup," admitted Terry who, already hip to this, has been working on a bass horn design of his own. "The problem with bass horns is their size, which is why most people opt for the smaller conventional subwoofer modules to supplement horns." My $18,000 Avantgarde Duos, for example, use a self-powered woofer module on each speaker. Contrary to common belief, infrasonics contribute more to a sense of air and space than a tweeter or even super-tweeter.


The music at Bill's had an aliveness that was so charged with energy that it seemed as though every molecule of air in the room vibrated in excitement with the music even at modest volumes. Yet when the volume went up, a very enticing and easy-on-the-ears effortlessness remained. Bill's system delivered the goods both at low and high volumes, something few systems can do as well including my own. That combination of aliveness, airiness, life-like dynamics and cubits of natural detail is something I've only heard from the very best SETs like the Yamamoto coupled to horns and bass horns. Bass horns are it. Groovy, baby!


After listening to Bill's system for a while, we switched out the Cain & Cain I-Bens and fired up the full Edgarhorn sub/sat system (joke alert!). The Edgars are the biggest satellites and sub combo I've ever seen! With the Edgarhorns in place, the sound became warmer, less airy and spacious but no less engaging: different yet equal, just as it should be in a good democratic sound system. And like a good democrat, the Edgarhorns were a little mellower and more tolerant of recording quality differences. They're lovers, not fighters. I like 'em.