Well, I am delighted to say that the Yamamoto HA-02 Headphone amplifier has arrived and it is indeed a thing of beauty. Not just to listen to but to look at as well.

The amplifier is superbly finished in a rosewood veneer, with a solid wooden volume knob. Shiny metal tube protectors and robust RCA connectors and a spring loaded headphone jack round out the other external niceties.

Well how does it sound? I tried it first, relatively new out of the box with my iPod. I must say it sounded just OK. After 40 or so hours running in, I tried with my old Rotel CD player. It sounded much better but still not anything special. After about 80 hours I plugged it in to the Wadia and had a serious listen with a colleague (see TonyC in full evaluation mode below!) through a collection of headphones and the magic really started to kick in.

The sound is particularly friendly to female jazz and vocals especially when using my Jecklin Float Model 2 'phones. They don't go really low (or really high for that matter) but demonstrate great rhythm and pace and tone in the mid range. And very non-fatiguing from a sound and comfort point of view. We also enjoyed the sound from the AKG 701s, which delivered a fuller and richer presentation, if not as 'pure' perhaps as the Floats. Slightly disappointing were the Sennheiser 600s. With an upgraded cable, these are supposed to be the best/most expensive headphones I own. They sounded good but nothing flash and were uncomfortable after some 10 or 15 minutes. I sense they could have a 'For Sale' sign on them soon........