Yamaha HS7 Review (studio monitor)

[LTig]

We can see the reason for the peaking at 800 Hz in near-field measurement of each radiating surface:
View attachment 108213
We can clearly see port resonance pushing up the overall response there -- a common problem.

With each review of a ported speaker I become more happy that my main speakers (K&H O300D, predecessor of Neumann KH310) are sealed. These port resonances have ruined the FR of many speakers.

 

[dfuller]

With each review of a ported speaker I become more happy that my main speakers (K&H O300D, predecessor of Neumann KH310) are sealed. These port resonances have ruined the FR of many speakers.

Agreed. Seems that ports are not so easy to design as people think...

 

[thewas]

With each review of a ported speaker I become more happy that my main speakers (K&H O300D, predecessor of Neumann KH310) are sealed. These port resonances have ruined the FR of many speakers.

Of many but far from all, look for example on the ported ones from the same company (the reason that only the O300/KH310 didn't have them was purely because there was not enough space on the front). On the other hand a well designed BR can give quite some SPL and distortion advantage and if you don't want them you can still block them.

 

[peniku8]

Is that kind of thing actively desired by folks using these in the studio?

You have studio monitors that strive for flatness (JBL, Genelec, etc) and then you have monitors like these that are intentionally doing something else.

Makes me think some pros actually want that. I guess I could see the utility, but that's still weird to me.

I'm running a recording/mixing studio and if I want to investigate a certain frequency region I will bandpass it and listen to that region in solo. Uneven frequency response might highlight 'almost problems', but I'd stay far away from that unless you have multiple pairs of speakers in your studio. In that case I'd prefer a "bathtub" EQ'd speaker as second pair thou, as that's seemingly what every other HiFi and DJ system is tuned like.

 

[okok]

this or Adam t8v

 

[Music1969]

These are using analogue active crossover correct?

No DSP crossover inside?

I don't see any mention of DSP on the product page

 

[dfuller]

These are using analogue active crossover correct?

No DSP crossover inside?

I don't see any mention of DSP on the product page

Correct, analog active.

 

[heflys20]

Lol. If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard someone describe the smaller speakers of the HS line as "accurate" and possessing "neutral" tonality...I guess expectation bias and popularity will do that. To make things worse, after convincing themselves that these speakers are correct, when they come into contact with a speaker that's actually more neutral; they'll describe the other speaker as sounding "scooped".

Shame. Particularly when you have cheaper and better measuring ( mostly) speakers like the lsr 306p and Kali lp6.

 

[dfuller]

Lol. If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard someone describe the smaller speakers of the HS line as "accurate" and possessing "neutral" tonality...I guess expectation bias and popularity will do that. To make things worse, after convincing themselves that these speakers are correct, when they come into contact with a speaker that's actually more neutral; they'll describe the other speaker as sounding "scooped".

Shame. Particularly when you have cheaper and better measuring ( mostly) speakers like the lsr 306p and Kali lp6.

I've had to tell people more than once that they aren't even remotely flat and they don't believe me. People legitimately think "flat" means "sounds like absolute crap".

 

[heflys20]

I've had to tell people more than once that they aren't even remotely flat and they don't believe me. People legitimately think "flat" means "sounds like absolute crap".

Yes. The cliché, "studio monitors are not meant for musical enjoyment, but are meant to sound flat and dull," response from the typically misinformed consumer. As a result (coupled with popularity of speakers like the NS-10), it's not hard for Yamaha to convince the average Joe that their speakers are "precise" and "honest."

 

[smcc]

I have these since they came out and wouldn't recommend them even with eq...the thing is, while you can get them sounding decent enough with eq at low levels, you also bring up the thd and it gets pretty bad very quickly...also that peak in thd around 300hz in your measurements, i think that's a internal resonance, it used to drive me mad when playing a digital piano through them! I noticed that way before I measured them...have them set up for my mom to do zoom piano lessons, grand for that...

one good thing i will say is that after 8 years of abuse they still work and pretty much sound as new, besides digital piano and mixing, and listening (including parties), I also used to play electric guitar through them via amp sims pretty loud...once i got to the point that i hated them, i was almost trying to blow them, for years, and they just kept going...then my dad had them as house speakers, and they were on 24/7 for about 3 years, and then my brother had them for a while as a guitar amp also, lol...

 

[heflys20]

Lol. Like I said. A product that purely relies on popularity and people convincing themselves that sounding mediocre="neutrality."

 

[IIIRIC]

Yamaha HS7 Speaker Listening Tests and Equalization
My quick reaction to the sound of HS7 was that it was excessively bright. This was aggravated by lack of much bass. So I pulled out the EQ tools to correct this and other issues:

View attachment 108221

Once there, the sound was still a bit bright but otherwise, quite enjoyable. Bass now had good tactile feedback and overall fidelity was quite good.

Conclusions
As modern studio monitors go, the Yamaha HS7 cannot keep up in delivering flat and objectively correct response. It does however deliver on industrial design. With a bit of EQ, the sound is transformed and becomes quite accurate and pleasurable.

Without EQ, I cannot recommend the Yamaha HS7. But with EQ, I would.

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Great analysis! It was very useful. I used your EQ recommendations and definitely noticed an improvement especially when it came to taming certain areas of the treble to make the monitors less fatiguing.

My current HS7 setup includes the HS7S subwoofer and I did my listening with my speakers towed in towards my ears, with the tweeters at about ear level, equilateral triangle spacing between, and foam absorbers under the cabinets. I did notice that the snare was a bit harsh in some upbeat songs, and the deep bass seemed to get muddy when listening to deep bass music.

In response, I decided to tweak your suggested EQ parameters to fit my liking (see image below). I'm not sure that I'll keep it there, I may tweak it a bit after further listening. I don't have any technical measurement equipment here so I made my EQ decisions by ear. I'm open to suggestions for further adjustments.