Build quality is good. The PC Board is well layouted, solid looking point to point wiring. Soldering is well done. Overall feeling is solid. The housing is painted black hammerite. The texture is much finer though. Input is either CD or Aux of the gold plated cinch-variety. Output are screw-in posts, also goldplated. Both feel solid. Volume control is a stainless-knob with a nice feeling and positive feedback. On/off is flip down with clear indexing. Input switch has positive click-feedback. Front-Wood panel is nicely crafted but not really needed and sort of a afterthought. Logo, on top, is CNC-carved and well presented.
Stainless tube heat-shield is stainless with vents and is hold down with two small screws.
Tubes are made by Shyugang and are packed in small and padded cardboard boxes. The EL 34B come matched and labelled V1 to V4, so do the small F6 tubes.The powercord is included.
The unit started up fine, smell is present, as with most new tube-equipment. Right from the beginning the amp sounded very fine. 1 week of burn-in improved the unit considerably. It sounds warm, resolution is very good and on par with much pricier amps. Bass is solid an not overly present,middle is well presented, highs are well matched and clear. There is no coloration but of course there is the tubiness that we are all after. It excells at lower to upper-middle volume, distortion is present at very high volumes. Complex CD recordings, at higher volumes, feel sometimes confused. This is repeatable. The exact same musical piece on VINYL plays absolutely fine. Together with a Bellari-tube phono preamp and the Project turntable the analog chain is where the FV-34BIII excells.
3d imaging depends on the quality of the source. A bad recording shows immediatly while a good source fills the room with presence and precision.
I swapped the chinese EL34B tubes with the new Mullards EL34 and the small ones with Philips JAN (Joint Army/Navy).
I am rolling back and forth. Both sound very good, the Mullards are tubier without beeing fuzzy, the Shuygang more precise, even analytical, definitely bassier and more powerful. The Philips JAN are give or take with the OEMs, maybe a bit less powerful. At the moment I have not decided on my preference of coloration with the Mullards or precision with the OEMs. Maybe I need some more tubes to test but I am very happy with the Yarland and its capabilities.
Review courtesy of audioasylum.com
