Yamaha HS8 Studio Monitor Review

[Mnyb]

Thank you for your reply.

For the piano, nothing is ever changed in terms of tonality. The instrument is played in the home (by someone else; I don't know how to play), and nothing is recorded or published. At some point, the piano might be connected with a computer and digital audio workstation application for use with music notation software. If you (or others, perhaps musicians?) happen to have any suggestions on what monitors might be more suitable for the piano, I'd welcome them.

For my spoken word recordings, they are used in an academic setting (inlcuding online courses). The recordings are merely lecture-type notes, verbal instructions, and so forth. The signal from the microphone (usually a Shure SM7dB) runs through a channel strip (Grace Design m103). I'll insert the graphic of the equipment rack so that you can see the EQ settings on the m103. The effects of the EQ are moderate (notwithstanding a couple +12dB settings), and the compressor on the m103 is bypassed. The signal from the m103 goes to Ch. 2 of an Aphex Model 622 Expander/Gate. The Aphex unit is used to "gate out" ambient noise (e.g., air conditioning noise, planes flying overhead, outdoor traffic, and so forth). The ambient noise is never extreme. It is usually only the air conditioning sound that I wish to prevent in my recordings. From the Aphex, the signal goes to a Grace Design m108 microphone preamplifer/ADC.

Before using the Grace Design m103, I was using a dbx 286s channel strip, and the EQ settings there made dramatic (and to me unnatural/"exagerrated") differences in my voice. I got the m103 after the dbx unit stopped working properly (e.g., intermittent static noise, an almost complete loss of signal).

In terms of whether my voice recordings sound "right", I would say that they do. Put another way, I recognize myself in the recordings and don't sense that the sound of my voice is changed unnaturally. Students tell me that my voice sounds as it does "live" (students in my face-to-face courses listen to my voice recordings for some of their coursework). At times, instead of typing emails to friends, I send voice recordings. They say that I "sound the same".

Curiosity has led me to listen to my recordings on other devices, including mobile devices (tablets, laptop computers, mobile telephones), desktop computers with whatever speakers are connected to them, and even on my music playback equipment. The sound seems all right, with nothing obvoiusly amiss. When I make my recordings, I use headphones (Sennheiser HD 300 PROtect).

I will mention that listening to music on the Yamaha HS8 monitors is definitely different from listening on my music playback system, and I attribute that to the fact that they're small monitors (not floor-standing loudspeakers), they're in a different room than where my sound system is, and they're off to the side (my listening space at the computer is not an equilateral triangle). The rare music listening I do with the Yahamas is always at a low volume. When I want to listen to music, I use my Hi-fi stuff.

Below is an excerpt from the m103 manual on the EQ:

*********************************************************
The m103 equalizer section has 3 bands, with a fully parametric mid section and sweepable low and high sections. This equalizer has been crafted to be very powerful and versatile with no compromise to the transparency and detail of the signal. Because of its high level of precision and accuracy, you may find yourself being able to hear a much smaller amount of cut or boost than you would with other EQ designs.

Both the low and high sections can be operated in either peak -0- or shelf > mode. Peak mode, as indicated by the bell shaped icon, is used to cut or boost a specific frequency. Shelf mode, as indicated by the shelf icon, boosts or cuts all of the frequencies above (for the HI band) or below (for the LOW band) the frequency selected.
*********************************************************
View attachment 527976

Aha nice setup , well then it’s not actually mission critical and everyone is happy with the result.

So it’s for your own piece of mind . I’m not at all a professional but Neumann and Genelec are well regarded brands . But I have absolutely no real experience.
I use a couple of tiny audiosmile monitors at my desktop, but I don’t work with them .

 

[DSJR]

This might have been a great pair of monitors 20 years ago, but nowadays it is just not competitive. Thanks for testing though, it is still a VERY popular model AFAIK.

Not sure how long these have been around now, but yeah, I'd say they're well overdue for a refresh now and maybe some subtle cone-doping?

Interesting how the cabs seem to vibrate a lot, bearing in mind the added 'wedges' evident in the open-box pics.

 

[Sokel]

Not sure how long these have been around now, but yeah, I'd say they're well overdue for a refresh now and maybe some subtle cone-doping?

Interesting how the cabs seem to vibrate a lot, bearing in mind the added 'wedges' evident in the open-box pics.

Not very old, depending which models, they're out for 20 years or so.

The ones I'm talking about (revision) went out at 2012-13 or so, with some of them having problems at 2018 or so, here in Europe.
My dealer was fixing them for free back then, it was trivial to do so.

 

[Darkatomz]

Yikes, to think these were my main drivers for years right out of college before I learned more from this site and settled on the Genelec 8030C that I've had for over 6yrs now. The HS8 is not terrible of course, but there's just way better value out there these days if you know what to look for.

 

[Sokel]

I had a closer look at Amir's settings, as that's the way he measured them.

The High Freq trim is at +2dB (?hard to see) and the Room Control trim is at -2dB.

These reflect exactly the deviations we see, it would be even smoother with both at 0dB.

 

[jareinertson]

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.
View attachment 527872
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:
View attachment 527874

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:
View attachment 527873

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:
View attachment 527875
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:
View attachment 527876

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:
View attachment 527877

And the same in predicted in-room response (assuming far field listening):
View attachment 527878

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:
View attachment 527879
View attachment 527880
The wider response is beneficial however. Vertical directivity is rough as it tends to be in non-coaxial designs:
View attachment 527881
More the reason to absorb them.

Distortion is good at 86 dBSPL but becomes unacceptable at 96:
View attachment 527882
View attachment 527883
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:
View attachment 527884
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:
View attachment 527885

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:
View attachment 527886

Step response looks smooth:
View attachment 527887

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:

View attachment 527888
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.
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Thank you for the review. Perhaps they would benefit from the addition of an internal brace between the sides?

 

[staticV3]

I had a closer look at Amir's settings, as that's the way he measured them.

The High Freq trim is at +2dB (?hard to see) and the Room Control trim is at -2dB.


View attachment 528023

These reflect exactly the deviations we see, it would be even smoother with both at 0dB.

Looks like 0 and 0 to me

 

[Sokel]

Looks like 0 and 0 to me

Look at the original pic, my snapshot is not very good.
They don't look to be at 0dB, specially the Room Control one (note that it goes from 0dB to -4dB downwards)

 

[staticV3]

Look at the original pic, my snapshot is not very good.
They don't look to be at 0dB, specially the Room Control one (note that it goes from 0dB to -4dB downwards)

 

[Sokel]

View attachment 528024

That's the original buttons at 0dB:

 

[staticV3]

That's the original buttons at 0dB:

View attachment 528027

Yeah, exactly like in Amir's pic and in the GIF I made for clarity.

First DIP switch is in the top position and second switch in the middle.

 

[heraldo_jones]

There used to be a mod floating around online that involved removing a capacitor/resistor that effectively bypassed the woofer’s limiter, and people claimed it significantly improved the bass response. In fact, there was even a store in the U.S. that sold units with this mod already applied. If I remember correctly, it was also applicable to early-generation Focal Alpha monitors.

 

[Sokel]

Yeah, exactly like in Amir's pic and in the GIF I made for clarity.

First DIP switch is in the top position and second switch in the middle.

Not the way I see it as at Amir's setting for Room Control black index switch has evenly white spaces above and below.

At least that's the way I see it, pic is not very good of course.

 

[delta76]

This might have been a great pair of monitors 20 years ago, but nowadays it is just not competitive. Thanks for testing though, it is still a VERY popular model AFAIK.

What are better at the same price range of €550 in europe?

 

[staticV3]

What are better at the same price range of €550 in europe?

It's honestly fairly competitive with the likes of Kali LP-8v2, JBL 308p MKII, and Adam T8V:

Kali Audio LP-8v2 (Second Wave) 2-Way Studio Monitor Review

Kali Audio LP-8v2 2-Way Studio Monitor Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

JBL 308P MKII Studio Monitor Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the JBL 308P MKII 8-inch Monitor (powered speaker). I purchased this from a member a few months ago. New, they cost US $249. The 3 series look the same for good or bad: The large plastic waveguide is really in your face. Wish JBL would provide...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Adam T8V Studio Monitor Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Adam T8V active monitors (speaker). It was kindly sent to me by the company a few months ago. I was surprised at the very low cost of these speakers at US $299 (each) considering that they are DSP speakers with dual amplification. This is one...

www.audiosciencereview.com

We have yet to see a studio monitor with bass extension like these, but without some directivity/distortion/resonance issues at such a low price.

Between the four of them, I'd struggle to point out a clear winner.
Any one of them is a compromise in some way.

If it were still being sold, the Swissonic A308 may well have been the clear winner among them, thanks to its nice directivity control, ultra clean distortion, and resonance-free response.
Plus the possibility of built-in room correction thanks to the easily reprogrammable ADAU1701 chip inside.

 

[MayI]

Looks pretty good to me despite its age. Would be interesting to do a distortion sweep with a 80Hz HP, see effect around 300Hz when the woofers excursion is quite reduced.
Amir thanks for testing, presume the Covid has subsided!

 

[Postlan]

Even though it’s a somewhat older design, the fact that it doesn’t use an SMPS shows a seriously no-nonsense approach to ensuring reliability as a studio monitor. I like that.

 

[Matias]

It's honestly fairly competitive with the likes of Kali LP-8v2, JBL 308p MKII, and Adam T8V:

Kali Audio LP-8v2 (Second Wave) 2-Way Studio Monitor Review

Kali Audio LP-8v2 2-Way Studio Monitor Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

JBL 308P MKII Studio Monitor Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the JBL 308P MKII 8-inch Monitor (powered speaker). I purchased this from a member a few months ago. New, they cost US $249. The 3 series look the same for good or bad: The large plastic waveguide is really in your face. Wish JBL would provide...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Adam T8V Studio Monitor Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Adam T8V active monitors (speaker). It was kindly sent to me by the company a few months ago. I was surprised at the very low cost of these speakers at US $299 (each) considering that they are DSP speakers with dual amplification. This is one...

www.audiosciencereview.com

We have yet to see a studio monitor with bass extension like these, but without some directivity/distortion/resonance issues at such a low price.

Between the four of them, I'd struggle to point out a clear winner.
Any one of them is a compromise in some way.

If it were still being sold, the Swissonic A308 may well have been the clear winner among them, thanks to its nice directivity control, ultra clean distortion, and resonance-free response.
Plus the possibility of built-in room correction thanks to the easily reprogrammable ADAU1701 chip inside.

Between the 4, imo the other 3 win compared to the HS8 (directivity, distortion). But between the 3, they are more even.

 

[staticV3]

Between the 4, imo the other 3 win compared to the HS8 (directivity, distortion).

The Adam has worse directivity control, the JBL has worse distortion, and the Kali has worse frequency response with many high-Q resonances.

Therefore I'd struggle to place the Yamaha in last.

 

[amper42]

For $800 a pair, it's hard to recommend something with known distortion issues in the low end. Might as well stick to your ear buds.

If I'm looking for a much better speaker near that budget I would consider a pair of used BMR Monitors or the BMR Ceramic Mini Monitor.