Yamaha C-4
Yamaha C4 Pre Amplifier
1979 – 1981
MSRP adjusted (2020) $2150
Asking $1400
Sold
FMI HiFiHealthCare@Gmail.com
I started in HiFi in 1983 in a high end audio boutique in Boston. I fondly remember the Yamaha C4 that was a leftover at that time as Yamaha was phasing to the newer C2a that was the highest effort Yamaha had extended itself to date.
The C2a was almost 4 times the cost of the C4 and I will never forget the listening tests we performed against the 2, wondering how Yamaha could charge 4 times the cost for such a negligible improvement…but it was an explosive time in HiFi and people were more than happy to dig deep for that level of quality…the time when Analog was king!
As years went by the C4 proved to be the better, more reliable product, less prone to failure and some of the overheating issues that the C2a experienced as it aged.
To me the C4 is one of the greatest production pre-amps manufactured during the peak of analog design.
The Phono Preamp is absolutely superb, it's the principle reason to own this unit, if you’re a vinyl lover, and you've moved up to the vastly superior MC cartridges from the MM Moving magnet stylus cartridge then a critical front end is essential.
Testament to the focus on vinyl, there are 3 Phono input options including a dedicated input just for moving coils cartridges. In addition, a feature not found on many production HiFi Pre-Amps of it’s day is custom cartridge loading! With a dual FET differential and loading switch the RIAA is incredibly accurate to the standards at the time and an impressive dynamic margin of 285mV (kHz .01%)
The C-4 is sonically impressive in it's openness, soundstage and transparency.
C-4 is an honest unit, grossly over designed as was all Yamaha hi-end stuff of the era. The front end preamp has 8 paralleled transistors just to linearize the characteristics of each transistor to be averaged out to be the perfect single transistor, and biased current mirrors for incredibly tight bias and thermal tracking. The regulated +/- 30v power supply alone has more components, and transistors in it than many preamps of the era and today.
The C-4 is sonically impressive in it's openness, soundstage and transparency.
C-4 is an honest unit, grossly over designed as was all Yamaha hi-end stuff of the era. The front end preamp has 8 paralleled transistors just to linearize the characteristics of each transistor to be averaged out to be the perfect single transistor, and biased current mirrors for incredibly tight bias and thermal tracking. The regulated +/- 30v power supply alone has more components, and transistors in it than many preamps of the era and today.
If you need the ability to compensate for your room acoustics etc there is a very well designed Parametric Equalization Circuit along with a bypass for pure sonic reproduction of the source.
This is one of the finest examples of the C4 available for sale today.
This piece has been thoroughly refurbished on the inside and out including a complete recap of the Primary Power Supply with high end Nichicon Gold Capacitors.
The Headphone section of the C4 is a dedicated high fidelity amplifier exclusively designed to drive studio quality cans to the highest demands. This is a real emitter follower design build like a brick outhouse! This section was completely recapped with the highest quality Nichicon UKA series caps and Elna Silmic Series Silk Capacitors! If high end Head Gear is your thing, this is your Everest.
Having burned in the unit for less than 20 hours I can say it stacks up with some of the best Vinyl Pre-amps I have worked on in my 35 years of service. The ability to adjust the cartridge loading really increased the soundstage presentation on our Grado F9 reference cartridge and when used with a Denon 110 really allowed the high end to represent without extending sibilance.
If you have never had the ability to customize your cartridge loading characteristic response you have not realized the true potential of that cartridge if only by sheer luck of proper matching to a ridged input parameter otherwise provided by lesser designs.
One of the known shortcomings of this model is the incandescent bulbs that were used and actually made the face buttons quite warm over time. They also had a high fail rate. All the lamps in this rebuild were replaces with lifelong rated LED’s
FMI HiFiHealthCare@Gmail.com
