EAR 869 & EAR 834P
The EAR/Yoshino 869/859 single-ended amplifier and the 834P phono stage are the two single most popular EAR/Yoshino products to date. Both have been in production for more than fifteen years, and stood the test of time. The secret of the success? The fact that both are from the bottom end of the EAR price range has certainly been a factor in this. Another likely reason is that the EAR/Yoshino products are perceived as technically sound with solid build quality and longevity, values that eg. Japanese audiophiles rank high. The third factor must be that they've managed to satisfy sonically the audiophile community for if they had not, the two first mentioned cases would not have helped. The first two points we can take as given facts, but whether the sound is satisfying is something that we'll have to wait and see until we have lent our own ear to the amps. But first briefly about the products - briefly, because both amps have been gnawed to the end so many times over the years in reviews and the like.
EAR 869
The 869 SET is, as the name says, a single ended triode integrated built around the 519 pentodes. It shares the same output topology with its popular precedessor, the 859, but has a little more power (15W against 13W), sports a revised output transformer, and a modified input stage with one extra small-signal tube or valve as Tim de Paravici, the head designer of EAR, likes to call them. Besides 6 line level inputs, there are inputs to bypass the selector switch thanks to which the amplifier can be used as a genuine power amplifier.
The 519 pentode output tube operates in the "enhanced triode mode" meaning that "the control grid is connected to the cathode, with the audio signal fed into the valve via the screen grid whereas in "normal triode mode", the screen grid is usually strapped to the anode. Operated like this, the output valve behaved as a true triode." I asked Tim whether the 519 in his triode amps really behaves like a true triode, and you can read his answer here. On the other hand it is well known that Tim appreciates reliability, durability and low price as much as the choices he makes for the circuitry, those qulities being at least as imporant for him in choosing the output tube for the amp.
One more paragraph about what goes in the EAR 869: : "The input circuit is a cascade to give the high 150-times gain needed to drive the Enhanced Triode Mode correctly. Actual drive is via a cathode follower, DC-coupled to the ETM's grid. A minimum amount of negative feedback is taken from the output transformer, just to make sure that the amplifier stays spotlessly clean even when driving difficult loads. DC feedback is also applied across the three stages, as a self-biasing mechanism." As can be seen, when the power tube is operated in the enhanced triode mode the amp requires some negative feedback for the best linearity, zero NF ETM SETs do not exist.
With well over 20 kg, the EAR869 is a heavy beast even considering that SET's are heavy because of their massive OPTs. If the design of some other EAR amps looks a bit exotic and over-stylized to my Scandinavian eye - round forms in technical products are always a bit risky -, the EAR 869 looks honest and simple enough. It's a good looking amp without unnecessary embellishment. Even the silver/gold color combo didn't bother me although it's likely that surface gloss and shiny outlooks were primarily meant to please the markets in Far East Asia.
Sound quality
If I think of all the audio products I've reviewed in past 15 years, it's not too difficult to classify them in three categories: those that are obvious disappointments (not so many), those that are good, solid, basically flawless performers in different ways but not more (the majority), and those that pull over and go under one's skin (every now and then). That the distribution is such is only human. There have been more obvious stoppers than the EAR 869 but nevertheless it definitely belongs the last category.
Its sound possesses many strong points. The ability to follow the dynamics of the music is one: the amp goes quieter and quieter and quieter, and waits until the very last moment before it explodes with music. It appears to have souvereign authority over the music and reigns it with a stable grip. When music requires (this applies mainly to classic material) that certain events are highlighted and emphasized, the 869 does exactly that - does it better than many more mortal integrates, tube or solid state. And so on. But the crucial point is that the 869 pesuaded me to listen to it, and by implication made music feel good and right. That is a clear sign of a high quality audio product. It doesn't happen every day.
That the sound is of high quality ain't interesting. In what ways, is. Here we need to do some conceptual preparation. Suppose something like "a SET sound" exists. Suppose further that the 869 is one of the amps that possess the said SET sound. Then, as far as my experience and understanding of these things goes, we need to establish a new category for the 869. And the reason is that the 869 does not sound like a 'typical' SET amp whether from the directly heated 2A3/300B pool or from the group of single ended pentode amps (triode trapped or not) such as EL84 amps with which I compared it.
As to the latter, the 869 has more energy and livelyhood in the upper midrange to low treble region but sounds a tad darker and rounded in the upper treble. It did not have the same delicasy over the highest harmonics as my NOS Mullard EL84s did in a EL84 SET. But as to the rest, the EAR 869 is a winner: better control, drive, bass, dynamics, stability, serenity, carnality. Where the EL84 SET with its 4-6 watts got congested and thin during loud passages of the music sample, the 869 exhaled freely with no signs of compression whatsoever.
On the other hand, the sound of the 869 does not have the same "sophistication" (this is just a word, more important is what's behind it) and holographic transparence of the best direct heated SETs I've heard. If a 300B SET can sound "beautiful" (it need not but let's suppose so), then the 869 sounds "bold". "Bold" is a very apt word to describe how the 869 sounds in general. Direct, neutral, rhythmic and all that in a bold way.
Of the 300B and 2A3 amps, the 869 is more like the 2A3 in that it sounds less whimsy. If some 300B amps suffer from occasional bidirectional mental disorder, the 2A3 amps I've heard and the 869 sound wholesome. On the other hand, the 869 does not sound bold in a way Shindo amps 'typically' do: it doesn't have the same intensity, it doesn't give rise to similar long narratives, it doesn't get interwoven in music in that complex deep way that almost all Shindo amps (SETs or not) that I know do. As compared to Shindos, the 869 is like a BMW or Mercedes. It cares less of poetry and more of refined tactics and infallible strategies. So we need reserve a subcategory within the class of the SET sound for the type of bold sound the 869 represents.
When I auditioned the 869 as an integrated amp I had only relatively small 2-way speakers (AS, Harbeth, DIY, JPW) . None of those has the resonance frequency below 50 Hz so I cannot verify how the 869, as an integrated, handles the 50Hz or below bass in a full-range dynamic loudspeaker. But within the limits of the monitors, the EAR 869 produced bass that had power, was relatively tight and extended, more so than the EL84 SET. But I also listened to the 869, as a low pass power amp (<500Hz) with my Lansing AGA horn speakers. The 15" woofer in the Altec 816 bass cabinet does not descend down much below 50 Hz either but certainly provides a better picture of the amps resources to reproduce bass notes from the mid-bass to upper bass region, and gives a very good idea of the amp's abilities in the critical upper bass to 400Hz region. As compared to 20W Class A solid state mono blocks, the 869 had a bit warmer and rounded bass but wasn't disturbingly slow, suggy or woollen either. It's a good bass amp.
However, most of the time I used the 869 as a high pass power amp (>500Hz) to drive the very sensitive HF sectoral horns. There was only very little background noise and the sound was superlative: punchy, airy and spatious (particularly audible echoes) basically showing the same virtues and qualities as it did as an integrated amp but this time more pronouncedly, and yet as I said, it wasn't like other SETs. Some people believe that in a two way active horn system one should only use two identical pairs of mono blocks or two identical stereo power amps. I'm not sure if that were the only way to happiness but I'm almost certain that two 869s in a horn system like mine would give very bold results.
EAR 834P
EAR/Yoshino 834P Deluxe is a tube based MM/MC phonostage in a chrome and gold chassis. Inside is three ECC83. The max. output is 30V, noise (unweighted) -80 dB (1HF), MM Input sensitivity: 2.2 mV for 1 V @ 1kHz (53dB), and MC Input sensitivity: 0.22 mV for 1 V @ 1kHz (73dB). Like the 869/859, the EAR 834P is a classic, and has been subject to numerous reviews. Mine was a cripple because at the time of the review I could only compare the 834P with the RIAA of an solid state integrated (a modified vintage turntable with Denon DL103 as the cart, Ortofon trafo). Although I know it well and in that sense it provides a handy review yardstick, it is not the sort of RIAA with which the 834P deserves to be paralleled.
At any rate, the moment I replaced the regular RIAA with the 834P - Janet Baker singing - there was clearly more air and space in the sound, more of the third dimension, more individual distinct things happening here and there rather than everything being served and offered in one big envelop. Both the violins and the orchestral sounds had better timbres largely due to ease that came along with lack of dulling averaging of the solid state RIAA. The sound through the 834P was more analogue but not at the expense of integrity and the bass quality. With the 834P the whole climbed on the next level. Music from vinyls just made more sense, the listener being now in a better position to mentally read what's going on in the music. Coming back from the 834P to the integrated RIAA - John McLean singing - the differences were less pronounced but still there: no life, no air, no music. But as warned, these results are only preliminary and should be confirmed with a more professional arrangement. A colleague compared the 834P with a clearly more expensive Ensemble phonostage and preferred the latter.
Despite the tentative impressions, if I were forced, a gun on my forehead, to put the two amps, 869 and 834P, in the order of superiority, I'd say that the 834P would be the weaker link in the chain. This statement is not so much about the 834P itself as it is about the 869 whose performance I consider very strong. Together the EAR 869 and the 834P made a lot of sense and music. The two together make a good looking and technically advanced compact system, and given that one is able to find complimenting loudspeakers for the 869, high quality of the sound is quaranteened. Finding proper loudspeakers for the 869 should not be too difficult since sonically the 869 walks the golden mean and its 15 watts are powerful enough for many speakers. Matters of taste are a different story, of course.
EAR 869, 4770 euro; EAR 843P Deluxe, 1800 euro (EAR 834P phono, 1195 euro, EAR 834P Signature 1300 euro)