Yamaha YH-5M Ortho Earphone Info Dump

To commemorate Audeze's release of their iSine planar magnetic IEMs, I thought it'd be nice to put together a post about the only other ortho earphone to date, the Yamaha YH-5M. It's a vintage piece released in 1978 and was sold alongside a line of on-ear orthos.

Reception of the iSines seems to be lukewarm so far, likely owing to their design and ongoing issues over driver failure, but it's nice to see something fresh in the IEM space, without a high-end price. Here's hoping Audeze has made something with compelling sonic differences to the dynamic and BA stuff.

Back on topic, I've uploaded a video overview of the mechanisms in the YH-5M, and scans of the manual and a brochure. Anybody fluent in Japanese want to tackle a translation? Also, Tyll has measured the above pictured set some time back, pdf is here: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/YamahaYH5M.pdf. Enjoy!



Manual: http://imgur.com/a/EMI2G

Brochure: http://imgur.com/a/cz8ap

Additional links with more info and pretty pictures:
https://web.archive.org/web/20151205174716/http://wiki.faust3d.com/wiki/index.php?title=Yamaha_YH-5M
http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/yamaha/YH5M.html
http://www.head-fi.org/t/417325/yamaha-yh-5m-pictorial-form-follows-function

 

Great one. I adore its design and looks.
I tried to mod mine. I found it sounds much better in a closed housing. Not the stock cups, however, they suck. Unfortunately, I never finished this mod. And now I lost one screw, and can't assemble them back, eh.
I want the second one