The first audio component ever to wear the term Hi-Fi was released by Yamaha in 1954 – the HiFi Player – and the company has been making quality audio gear ever since, including a Class A amplifier in 1973, the GT-2000 record player in 1982 and an active speaker system in 1991. The company is building on this legacy with the release of the 5000 series, which has been "designed for the most discerning and passionate audiophiles."
After eight years of research and development, the world's largest musical instrument maker has integrated its True Sound concept – which "strives to reproduce sound exactly as the artist intended it to be heard, enveloping the listener in music as if it were being experienced live" – into a new series of flagship audio components engineered to work together as a complete system.
"With this new system, the focus is less on the individual components and more on the immersive and uniquely moving experience created for the listener," said Yamaha's Alex Sadeghian. "Achieving purity of sound is critical and our new 5000 series was designed with this, and the discerning listener, in mind. Authentic sound reproduction is in the Yamaha DNA, from our musical instruments and the smallest wireless speaker all the way to our flagship Hi-Fi gear. That is the entire concept behind the 5000 series. It's an achievement in both art and sound."
The "GT" in the moniker of the GT-5000 turntable stands for "Gigantic and Tremendous." It features a short, straight carbon fiber and copper-plated aluminum tonearm, an 11.5 lb outer platter and 4.4 lb inner platter, and its quartz-timed belt-drive system is reported to keep the influence of the 24-pole, two-phase AC synchronous motor to a minimum. All of this comes in a heavy wooden cabinet in piano black, and it's priced at US$7,999.95, with release pegged for early 2020.
The $9,999.95 C-5000 pre-amp is available now and features fully balanced discrete circuits, dual toroidal transformers for the right and left channels, and a patented design that "floats" the phono EQ, input amp and line amp stages to remove the influence of ground noise from the signal.
Also available now for the same price as the pre-amp is the M-5000 power amp, which sports a floating/balanced amplifier design, too, that's said to minimize energy loss and achieve low impedance. The huge toroidal transformer, block capacitors and heat sink have been mechanically fixed to the frame to nix any signal-spoiling vibration. It has pure brass speaker terminals, inputs include RCS and XLR, and VU meters are housed behind Asahi glass.
The final members of the 500 series are the NS-5000 bookshelf speakers, which have tweeter, midrange and woofer diaphragms made of a synthetic fiber material called Zylon. Yamaha says that this affords the speakers "exceptional acoustic velocity and the ability to reproduce the most delicate details of audio without the sharp resonance peak inherent of harder materials."
The enclosures are made from white Japanese birch finished in piano black, and Yamaha has included resonance suppression chambers to remove unwanted resonance in the mids and highs, and an Acoustic Absorber to resurrect the music's original presence. The speakers are due for release as a pair later this month for $14,999.95.
Product page: 5000 series