Yamamoto HSA-01 headshell/head amp

With Dave Slagle’s head amp driving the MM stage of my Silvaweld phono, there is no problem at all, and it sounds great. With my modified MP1 and with the 3160, I get good results but with a very slight sense of strain. On LPs with inherently high gain and low noise, those two work fine. I wouldn’t be putting in the effort if I didn’t also feel that the MC2000 is special.

Here is my report on the Yamamoto HSA-01 self-amplifying headshell, used so far only with the Ortofon MC2000: Don’t do it. There is too much hiss or white noise at SPLs even below satisfactory. I suspect this may be because Yamamoto says in the fine print that the device is to be used with cartridges having at least a 0.1mV output at 1kHz at standard velocity. As the cognoscenti may know, the MC2000 does not meet this criterion; its output is only .05mV at the above conditions. Sound quality is very good, but the hiss is unacceptable and would be so to any of us. When I get around to it, I will mount some other higher output LOMC cartridges in the HSA-01, to see whether my hypothesis is correct, that the MC2000 output cannot adequately drive the op amp in the HSA-01. In case you are wondering, I did replace the OEM battery in the HSA-01 empirically, on the premise that it may be worn down just due to aging on the shelf before purchase. Indeed, my measurements of the OEM battery suggest that was worth doing, but to no avail as far as performance with the MC2000. C’est la vie.

No it did not upset me, and I apologize for any sarcasm. I now see how you might have been confused, because the SPU cartridges are built into a headshell, whereas the Yamamoto headshell only has a gain stage built into it. You have to install your LOMC of choice in order to use the gain stage/headshell. I might have triggered your confusion by mentioning that I want to try the Yam with my Ortofon MC2000, which is not an SPU but is an Ortofon product. I bought the Yamamoto out of curiosity regarding whether adding gain ahead of clips, tonearm wires, connectors, etc, which all add resistance in the signal path that could compromise a very low voltage signal might enhance the SQ of a very low output LOMC by increasing the amplitude of the signal voltage at the source. (Sorry for the long and complex sentence.)

Stereo, you ask what you are missing. What have I written that has anything to do with an SPU, which cartridges are an Ortofon product?

If you say so.  But I personally would not call flat from 10Hz to 100kHz "limited".  If you use -3db limits, then perhaps the bandwidth is much wider.

My rationale for giving the HSA-01 a go in my system is purely to see how it works with the Ortofon MC2000, which puts out only 0.05mV at standard velocity. So far, the MC2000 works well with a head amp built for me by Dave Slagle, driving my much modified Silvaweld 550 in MM mode, and with both my modified Atma-sphere MP1 and Raul’s 3160 Phonolinepreamp, set for hi-gain. Using the HSA-01, the MC2000 output goes from 0.05mV to 0.7mV at the headshell. I want to try it driving either of those latter two phonolinepreamps, with input Z set to 47K ohms. This would say something about the negative effect if any of the wires and connectors between the cartridge and the phono inputs on such a tiny signal amplitude. (Well, we know wires and connectors can have negative effects, but are they ameliorated with a higher voltage output from the headshell?) Also, the HSA-01 would enable me to use the MC2000 in my Beveridge system, which is driven by a Manley Steelhead that only manages 65db total gain at max.

Dear Raul, you are an amazing historian of this hobby. I personally do not recall any similar product, but if you say it existed, I believe you. However, I would think that a modern iteration of the product would likely be superior to anything that Was on the market 20 or 30 years ago, simply because the gain devices we now have available are both smaller and superior in performance to anything that was possible back then. This does not necessarily mean that the thing I bought in Tokyo will be a revelation. I will report eventually on its performance.  my reason for starting this thread was simply to find out if anyone here had already heard the device in action. 

Frequency response said to be 10-100kHz. It’s just a tiny gain stage. Within any high gain MC phono stage there is likely a single similar device adding gain at the input. So they’ve in effect surgically removed it and mounted it in the headshell along with a tiny battery PS. The question in my mind is whether that affords an audible advantage. I paid much less in Tokyo due to the favorable exchange rate.