Yamaha: YH-5000SE

Expensive, but their performance is exceptional

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Headphones ₹NA

Mention Yamaha and it is the Japanese brand’s enviable track record with home cinema amplifiers that comes to mind. The company is also a dominant force in musical instruments, motorcycles and more, but its smallish domestic headphone range tends to get overlooked. It seems Yamaha is determined to change that with the introduction of the range-topping YH-5000SE.

The YH-5000SE uses an orthodynamic driver, an older term for planar magnetic, where the diaphragm is etched with a voice coil and sits between opposing magnets. This arrangement has advantages compared with a conventional moving-coil driver as it has the potential for lower distortion because the diaphragm is driven over more of its surface area, and greater responsiveness thanks to its lower weight. The driver used here differs from conventional magnetic planar units by having a circular diaphragm with a spiral coil.