YBA PRODUCTS


I just purchased their PASSION 650 stereo amp. Some of the sweetest solid-state Watts I have heard; this is after letting go of my BEL CANTO 40 SET AMP.  Given how wonderful YBA products are I am wondering why I’ve heard of them only once or twice in the last dozen years or so, and I think both times have been me. Anyone out there have first hand listening experience with YBA?
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I have their vintage budget line -AudioRefinement - in my bedroom and built a system using the same components for my girlfriend. Both sound great. 
I have run YBA for quite a while, first with the Audio Refinement series, then YBA separates and now a 100w Passion integrated. All performed very well but I never really had another amp/preamp to compare to. In my opinion one of the coolest features of the YBA line is the remote and volume control. It does not seem linear. Hard to explain but it seems the volume has two different "levels" There is a point in the control where the volume "jumps" from a low listening level to more of a "powered" level. Kind of like you have multiple volume points at low listening levels and then a separate set of volume points at higher volume levels. Hard to explain like I said. Maybe someone can explain the mechanics of it better than I unless I am imagining it!
PS - The AR line amp I had also had a cool feature for a budget component - gain level adjustments. Worked wonders with my cd player. No attenuators need. 
As I understand it there was a great deal of personal intrigue in this brand, involving a divorce, and brand ownership, yadda yadda.


I didn't follow it very closely, but this may partly explain why this brand kind of exploded on the American scene and then disappeared.
Yves Bernard Andre, is the company.

They even did/made their own transistors. Output devices, IIRC.

Well made stuff, with a refined tastes type aim.

When you are done with the big buttocks, breast implant and collagen lips kind of musical beauty-bluntness of the mid-high level pretension... and have learned a bit more about how things should really sound and can sound..then you can get introduced to things in the audio world like YBA.

We all do this at different speeds, some right way in their audio adventures..some after decades...and some...not in this life.