This is a review, detailed measurements, listening tests and EQ of Yamaha HS8. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and costs US $800 for a pair.
The silver version I have looks nice and feels nice. There is a shallow waveguide so directivity should not be too bad. And the cut out in woofer ring allows the center of the two drivers to be closer together (to improve vertical directivity).
Back side is rather simple but not sure you need more:
This older audiophile still has a warm spot for classic AB amplification as indicated by the heatsink.
Testing was performed with all the controls as you see.
I was pleasantly surprised that unlike the NS series, company measurements show rather flat response:
Let's put it on our Klippel Near-field scanner and see how it does.
Yamaha HS8 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our spinorama frequency response and directivity measuerments:
Our higher resolution on-axis response shows digs out more variations/resonances than the company but generally correlates well. There is messiness that is kept rather low between 300 Hz and nearly 1 KHz. We can see some of the reasoning in the near-field driver tests:
The woofer also has some resonances that are not quite filtered out, causing some boost in our on-axis response. The tweeter also has a resonance which is reflected in our anechoic measurements.
Lack of full directivity control causes uneven response in early window reflections:
And the same in predicted in-room response (assuming far field listening):
This is complex level of colorations which is harder to diagnose and correct. But we will try in the listening test section.
As noted, directivity is not great and we can see that in our plots:
The wider response is beneficial however. Vertical directivity is rough as it tends to be in non-coaxial designs:
More the reason to absorb them.
Distortion is good at 86 dBSPL but becomes unacceptable at 96:
I sort of expect the bass distortion but we have a lot of stuff going on from 200 to 500 Hz. Let's look at what comes out of the port in that regard:
Yup. Same thing. Some absorption would have been good. There are also resonant peaks.
Focusing on low frequency, we again see the same issue near 300 Hz:
During the sweep, I could hear the onset of distortion in lower frequencies even with my hearing protection on. At 101, it was massively distorting so don't even think of running it full range there. Use of a sub with 80 Hz high pass should remedy some of that but not the hump at 300 Hz.
Waterfall display shows lasting resonances:
Step response looks smooth:
Yamaha HS8 Listening Tests and Equalization
I tested the monitor in my usual setup. First impression was reasonable bass extension but depending on the track, response seemed distorted and muddy in bass. It disappeared in techno tracks but would frequently come back during bass that accompanied other types of music. I felt the cabinet and it was strongly resonating on top, left and right. This would in turn excite the shelving I had (despite an absorber between them) resulting in some unwanted noise. But this was not all of it. When I applied EQ to 300 Hz to 1 kHz, this seemed to subside:
But the tonality was not quite right. So I messed and messed with the response based on measurements to what you see above. Now the overall clarity was improved and less emphasis in highs. Correcting for small variations is very hard by ear and eye so more precise work may result in better results.
Conclusions
Yamaha's NS series had so jaded my opinion of the brand that I thought the HS8 would be a horror show. It was not. It is a reasonable effort to produce a brand name monitor at a reasonable price. Design flaws do exist however at small to medium levels in different areas. Equalization did clean up some of it resulting in a good sound with rather deep extension for a monitor of its size.
I can barely recommend the Yamaha HS8 without EQ. With EQ, it becomes good enough.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The silver version I have looks nice and feels nice. There is a shallow waveguide so directivity should not be too bad. And the cut out in woofer ring allows the center of the two drivers to be closer together (to improve vertical directivity).
Back side is rather simple but not sure you need more:
This older audiophile still has a warm spot for classic AB amplification as indicated by the heatsink.
Testing was performed with all the controls as you see.I was pleasantly surprised that unlike the NS series, company measurements show rather flat response:
Let's put it on our Klippel Near-field scanner and see how it does.
Yamaha HS8 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our spinorama frequency response and directivity measuerments:
Our higher resolution on-axis response shows digs out more variations/resonances than the company but generally correlates well. There is messiness that is kept rather low between 300 Hz and nearly 1 KHz. We can see some of the reasoning in the near-field driver tests:
The woofer also has some resonances that are not quite filtered out, causing some boost in our on-axis response. The tweeter also has a resonance which is reflected in our anechoic measurements.
Lack of full directivity control causes uneven response in early window reflections:
And the same in predicted in-room response (assuming far field listening):
This is complex level of colorations which is harder to diagnose and correct. But we will try in the listening test section.
As noted, directivity is not great and we can see that in our plots:
The wider response is beneficial however. Vertical directivity is rough as it tends to be in non-coaxial designs:
More the reason to absorb them.
Distortion is good at 86 dBSPL but becomes unacceptable at 96:
I sort of expect the bass distortion but we have a lot of stuff going on from 200 to 500 Hz. Let's look at what comes out of the port in that regard:
Yup. Same thing. Some absorption would have been good. There are also resonant peaks.
Focusing on low frequency, we again see the same issue near 300 Hz:
During the sweep, I could hear the onset of distortion in lower frequencies even with my hearing protection on. At 101, it was massively distorting so don't even think of running it full range there. Use of a sub with 80 Hz high pass should remedy some of that but not the hump at 300 Hz.
Waterfall display shows lasting resonances:
Step response looks smooth:
Yamaha HS8 Listening Tests and Equalization
I tested the monitor in my usual setup. First impression was reasonable bass extension but depending on the track, response seemed distorted and muddy in bass. It disappeared in techno tracks but would frequently come back during bass that accompanied other types of music. I felt the cabinet and it was strongly resonating on top, left and right. This would in turn excite the shelving I had (despite an absorber between them) resulting in some unwanted noise. But this was not all of it. When I applied EQ to 300 Hz to 1 kHz, this seemed to subside:
But the tonality was not quite right. So I messed and messed with the response based on measurements to what you see above. Now the overall clarity was improved and less emphasis in highs. Correcting for small variations is very hard by ear and eye so more precise work may result in better results.
Conclusions
Yamaha's NS series had so jaded my opinion of the brand that I thought the HS8 would be a horror show. It was not. It is a reasonable effort to produce a brand name monitor at a reasonable price. Design flaws do exist however at small to medium levels in different areas. Equalization did clean up some of it resulting in a good sound with rather deep extension for a monitor of its size.
I can barely recommend the Yamaha HS8 without EQ. With EQ, it becomes good enough.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
