A visit from a dear friend is one of life’s great gifts, and a recent trip to Colorado by the chief designer of the SoulNote brand was indeed a gift and a welcome break from our day-to-day work building some of the world’s finest speakers.
Hideki Kato is the chief designer of the well-known Japanese HiFi brand SoulNote, and he and SoulNote’s European business development manager (also serving as translator on this trip) Yuhsuke Iwahashi recently visited the YG factory in Colorado to see and hear the newly updated Hailey 3 speaker.
It took about 20 seconds of listening to the new Hailey 3.2 for Kato to turn and say, “I’m ordering the upgrade.”
Kato is one of a growing number of HiFi industry chief designers who rely on YG speakers to evaluate their designs. He has used the YG Acoustics Hailey 2.2 speaker for years to show him the right path in his design work.
SoulNote’s website describes his development philosophy: “At Soulnote, only listening dominates the determination and improvement of circuit, selection of parts and mechanical construction. This approach is a kind of antithesis against the supremacy of static performance.”
Kato and Iwahashi spent more than an hour alone with the system and the room, and afterward, Kato graciously offered the following note about his experience.
I was very happy to be able to listen to Hailey 3.2 this time. Even with it on the dolly, on first listen I felt the clarity and quality that I have always imagined for YG. No matter what I listen to, the music is more enjoyable and exciting, even emotionally stirring!
I was honestly surprised to hear the bass stay fast and sound thicker and wilder. I felt this was a wonderful evolution of Hailey. The spatial spaciousness remained great, and all the spaces sounded more energetic. The fact that you can choose any listening position is also evidence of its high potential, in my opinion.
Thank you very much for allowing us to listen to the music over a long period of time. While listening to a wide variety of music, I was convinced once again that SOULNOTE is indispensable to fully demonstrate the wonderful value of YG. If you all felt the same way, nothing would make me happier.
We do agree, and YG Acoustics would like to thank Mr. Kato and Mr. Iwahashi for carving out the time to visit amid their busy schedule, and for their friendship and support. We are thrilled to seek out more opportunities to combine our companies’ products, and we wish SoulNote great success with their newest designs such as the A-3 and D-3. To our ears, they make for an impressively synergistic and emotionally satisfying combination with YG Acoustics speakers.