Vintage Yamaha HP-6 Headphone Brancher 6-Way Distributor 1970s EM-150 Era

A wonderfully obscure piece of vintage Yamaha equipment from the 1970s — the Yamaha HP-6 Headphone Brancher.

The HP-6 was designed as an accessory for Yamaha’s EM-series powered mixers and ensemble systems. Yamaha’s original period literature describes it as a six-headphone monitoring unit that connects between the mixer’s speaker outputs and the speakers, allowing up to six people to monitor at the same time.

It is a very different idea from a modern standalone headphone amplifier. There is no external power supply or individual volume control. Instead, the HP-6 is built around the speaker-level L/R signal from the Yamaha EM system, with separate left and right input paths, six stereo headphone outputs, L/R speaker outputs, and a SPEAKER / PHONES selector.

The front panel layout is beautifully simple and very much of its era: six full-size 1/4-inch PHONES jacks, separate L/R SPEAKER outputs, and a single switch to select between speaker and headphone monitoring.

According to Yamaha’s 1977 catalog, the original specification was:

2-channel input
2-channel output
2 × Speaker Out
6 × Headphone Out
SPEAKER / HEADPHONE selector switch

The original Japanese list price was ¥4,500.

Today, the HP-6 is rarely seen on its own. It is an interesting piece for collectors of vintage Yamaha PA equipment, EM-series mixers, Japanese studio hardware, or anyone putting together a period-correct Yamaha ensemble system.

This particular unit has been electrically checked rather than simply sold as untested.

All six headphone outputs were checked with a multimeter on both left and right signal paths and showed consistent readings. Both L/R speaker paths were also checked, and the SPEAKER / PHONES selector correctly switches between the two paths.

An audio signal was additionally confirmed through both the left and right channels.

Please note that the unit was not tested with an original Yamaha EM-series mixer or in a complete period stereo system, so the testing is limited to the checks described above.

Accessories

Original attached L/R connection cables.

Only the items shown in the photos are included.

No external power supply is used with this unit.

Condition

Good vintage condition with age-related cosmetic wear.

There are scratches, marks, and surface wear consistent with its age. Please check the photos carefully for the exact cosmetic condition.

Function checked.

All six headphone outputs showed consistent continuity readings on both left and right channels.

Both L/R speaker paths and the SPEAKER / PHONES selector switch were checked and operate correctly.

Audio signal was confirmed through both left and right signal paths.

The unit has not been tested with an original Yamaha EM-series system.

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