Figured Iād post this here too to share my experienceā¦
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We have a very special video today! The Yamaha Home Audio YH-5000SE Orthodynamic Open Back Flagship Headphones; other flagship headphones dethroned?
Bullet points:
-Spacious, immersive sound stage with magnificent imaging and resolution
-Discuss the new orthodynamic drivers
-Fairly Balanced sound slightly warmer then neutral reference however the treble is also very well extended.
-highly comfortable only 320grams
-make comparisons to Meze Elite and Audeze LCD-5
-Discuss several amp and DAC pairings
-One of the best close to neutral reference flagship headphones for my preferences I have ever heard.
-Much more in the video
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Hey friends, I finally got my own pair of Yamaha YH-5000Se and wanted to share my findings on the initial un-box and listening. I will eventually make a follow-up video on the TSAV channel. So, after 24 hours of burn, it is pretty audible how much the sound has already changed in the Yamaha YH-5000 SE. I have been taking some notes. The bass was very loose on the first couple of hours of listening, and the treble sounded a bit rolled off. I listened for a few hours yesterday, then let them burn in for another 12-16 hours overnight or about 24 hours or so of constant burn-in, and this morning, now listening again, the bass is much tighter, and the treble is much further extended. I suspect that the reports from NYC Can Jam and The Audio Store, which had them on display for listening, were due to a lack of burn-in and under-delivering current from an amp that is only capable of about a watt of power output (based on can jam user reports via Head-Fi). Stay tuned for further reports on our TSAV YouTube channel. P.S. I love these headphones, and I havenāt been this excited to listen to headphones in a very long time. 
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I am unsure how many of you are Roon users, but I am working on parametric EQ settings for the YH-5000se headphones for Roon ARC and Roon Server. I will share them when they are complete. I am not a big fan of EQ; however, Roonās implementation is pretty damn good.
Alternatively, a synergistic tube amp with the YH5Kse does precisely what I like but better with the headphones, which is to smooth the upper mids/treble some and add a bit more bass presence, which makes the overall signature better for my preferences with some tracks may be poorly recorded or that have a focus on vocals and may benefit from a bit smoother/warmer vocal presentation.
With Jazz, Electronica, ambient, techno, orchestral, fusion, and classical, the signature of the YHK5se is pretty spot-on by itself. I hope you all have a great weekend!
Edit:
Another cool thing about these headphones is the ability to swap the pads for a bit different flavor with a bit warmer, more relaxed signature when compared to the more neutral, spacious, and faster-sounding leather pads.
This can be helpful when listening on more neutral sounding solid-state gear or for some recordings that are not always recorded optimally or if you feel like a bit different sonic listening experience.
I am listening to Kitaro and Yosi Horikawa right now off the Hugo 2 pretty epic.
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Yamaha HA L7A Flagship Headphone Amplifier and YH 5000se Headphones synergistic sound!
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I listened to a pair of these that my buddy swears by as his best headphones, and he has some of the greats, and honestly I found them to be a bit of an enigma. Sometimes I found them to be quite good and other times I found them to be quite average. Either way, they are an interesting pair of headphones and Iāve been working on arranging with my friend a time when I can borrow them for a couple weeks or so to have some time to work with different signal chains, music, etc.
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They arenāt perfect, but when they are dialed in, they definitely sound very enjoyable. They are really chain-dependent for me to get the sound the way I want them as well as swapping between the pads lastly they sound better with well-recorded music IMO.
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Just to add, these are very unrelenting when it comes to recording quality. Garbage in garbage out. The suede pads make them a little more forgiving but you sacrifice a good chunk of what these hps are great at.
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I wasnāt satisfied with my 1st draft, so here is the now complete 2nd (and final) draft fully revamped and improved!
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