Performance

Since the Yuin G1s are high impedance headphones and have a presumably lower efficiency than the other headphones from Yuin. A good portable or home amplifier is needed to make them sound their best. Like every other Yuin headphone I have tried, these needed a good amount of burn-in to sound interesting. Before my listening tests I put on roughly 150 hours of playtime on them. I have tested these headphones with the following headphone amplifiers: Head-Direct EF1, Octavart "The One" Amp & DAC, Travagan's Green, Travagan's Colors (portable), Ray Samuels Audio Tomahawk (portable).

Right now you get a Fiio E3 portable amplifier with each set of Yuin G1s, it is really great because you get everything you need in order to get a good listening experience straight out of the box. The Yuins definitely benefit from having an amplifier, but the difference between powering them with a big stationary amplifier and a good portable one is not that great. Even though they are high impedance they are not nearly as amplifier dependent as my other high end headphones. They scale alright with a better amplifier and source. There is just not a night and day difference like with some headphones. I can definitely see myself using these headphones on the move because they are light and can sound really good just being powered by one of my portable amplifiers.

To start off with I hooked them up to my RSA Tomahawk set to high gain, and that provided me with more than enough volume for my taste. The Cowon D2 was set to 34/50 volume to emulate a line-out, it is definitely not the strongest line-out but even so volume was not a problem. The RSA Tomahawk has just enough power to make the G1s sound interesting. The Tomahawk adds some bass, so on rock tracks the combination is very good. The sound stage was amazing compared to the fact that they were being driven by a setup that is very basic. Moving from the Cowon D2 and RSA Tomahawk combination to the Ocatavart "The One" amplifier really tightened up the bass and brought forth even more detail. The difference was noticeable. I also tested the G1s being fed by the Travagan's Green amplifier and the combination was quite pleasing although it did not change a lot compared to the Octavart, the main difference was a slightly less colored presentation and a more spacious presentation. Moving over to the Head-Direct EF1, the difference in sound was closely related to the fact that the headphones were now being driven by a tube based amplifier, it warmed up the mids and actually improved bass somewhat, making it a bit bigger and a little more refined (this could also be because the source is a good quality CD player).
When powered by a good amp the sound stage becomes much better and on the EF1 you get a real sense of layering in the music. The G1s still sound analytical but far from boring and inanimate, they are much more involving than most of the analytical headphones out there.

The change of amplification coming from the Tomahawk for a more powerful desktop amp made a relatively large difference in sound quality, however, I think you could achieve roughly the same sound quality if you used a more suitable portable amplifier to power them. The Tomahawk is intended for efficient earphones and headphones and the G1s are quite hard to drive.

The Yuin G1s are by far the most bass heavy of the Yuin headphones. They are a bit more laid back than the Yuin OK1s, but still retain analytical mids and highs. The midrange is crisp and clear with a certain airy quality much like the OK1s. The only thing is that they are more colored, from the boost in the lower mids and bass. The sound is warmer but still not what I would define as warm or even luke warm. Compared to a set of headphones such as the Ultrasone HFI-680s that we recently reviewed, the Yuin G1s are analytical and quite cold.

Treble intensity is a bit lower than that of the Yuin OK1s and PK1s, which some might find appealing. Yuin is known for their analytical sounding headphones and the G1 is still to be considered analytical. Just not to the same degree as the OK1s. The warmer sound signature of the G1s makes them more enjoyable on bass and vocal intensive music compared to the OK1s.

What is interesting to note about the G1s presentation is that it is a bit more sound stagey than the other earbud styled headphones from Yuin. Like the other Yuin headphones they are very detailed compared to most normal headphones on the market today, they have a very neutral sound with slightly elevated highs and lows. Especially the elevated highs might be a turn off for some, but generally the G1s will probably appeal to a much greater audience than the OK1s and the older PK1s due to their more mainstream sound signature.

Durability

The G1s are durable enough to withstand normal use, but I do not think the clip will tolerate abuse so you got to be careful not to squash them in a backpack or something like that. Since the cable is identical to that used on the new version of the PK1s and OK1s I suspect it will last for a very long time, I have not had a single cable related problem with any of the Yuin headphones so far.