YAMAHA C-5000 & M-5000 PREAMPLIFIER & POWER AMPLIFIER
In a recent review one colleague mentioned that he finds ‘upside-down’ power switches distinctly odd. (By ‘upside-down’, he meant up for ‘on’, and down for ‘off’.) This might, he said, be beneficial in for accidental interactions — better that the product be turned off accidentally than on. But otherwise, he thought, this seemed ‘upside-down’.
of Yamaha’s components here have the down-for-off orientation for their power switches. And we would not so much offer polite debate to our colleague as declare him to be just plain wrong. At the end of an extended evening playing music through the Yamahas, and extended listening they most certainly encourage, accompanied perhaps by a glass or two of whatever may loosen your listening muscles, we found it immensely satisfying to sidle over to the Yamahas and slap down those two switches like we were patting the dog good-night. Down is off. Of course it is.
That minor though fundamental functionality thereby assessed, let’s take a close look at this magnificent pre-power pairing which has seen Yamaha’s two-channel offering rise again to the levels it once enjoyed in the hey-day of stereo high fidelity, so we can see what has been reborn, what is new, and how it all comes together.
TRUE SOUND
Yamaha’s flagship 5000 Series has been released in reverse order, as it were, with the iconic NS-5000 speakers being first released, followed by the C-5000 preamplifier and M-5000 power amplifier under review here. The final element is the source, the GT-5000 turntable, which has been demonstrated at public outings and arrives officially on the Australian market “imminently”, we are told! The 5000 Series combines technologies of the present with a celebration of the past, as the speakers and turntable in particular take direct cues from previous Yamaha successes.
It is, notably, a fully analogue system, with no CD player in the 5000 Series, and no
