Yamaha HS8 Studio Monitor Review

[Guerilla]

I have the subwoofer that goes with this series, an HS8S. It is in storage. I do not really have space for it, though perhaps it might be of use with the piano (?).

Could it be reasonable to suppose that for pair I use for spoken word recordings

Don't worry Just enjoy. Test show they don't measure bad at all at moderate volume which also explains why @DanTheMan find them great for epiano You won't listen to your spoken word recordings at very loud volume so the distortion won't be high-And won't get on the recording. For sure your sub will give the piano more body/bottom, and relieve speakers so you can play louder without audible distortion. For overall much better performance you will have to spend much more money and buy much BIGGER speakers. It's a question of physics. Just enjoy!

 

[DatSpeakerTho]

Production =/= mixing or mastering. For production you only need to hear the sounds you're making so anything goes.

Super terrible misleading blanket statement not representative of reality.

Most artists mix as they go.

Trying to put strict labels on what happens during the music making process is a tell tale sign that one is not involved in it at all.

 

[Ilraptoria]

Don't worry Just enjoy. Test show they don't measure bad at all at moderate volume which also explains why @DanTheMan find them great for epiano You won't listen to your spoken word recordings at very loud volume so the distortion won't be high-And won't get on the recording. For sure your sub will give the piano more body/bottom, and relieve speakers so you can play louder without audible distortion. For overall much better performance you will have to spend much more money and buy much BIGGER speakers. It's a question of physics. Just enjoy!

Even though I'm not the one who plays the piano, I now plan to bring the subwoofer out of storage in the next few days to connect it with the current setup.

As for my spoken word recordings with the pair that is connected with my audio interfaces/computer, I listen at a modest volume. I'm only 95-110 cm from the speakers, so even on the rare occasions when I listen to music, the volume is rather low. Music listening happens in living area, which is plainly in need of treatment. I'm also considering something like Dirac Live for the room, which is, incidentally, where the piano is (photo below--mobile device used for photo).

 

[DatSpeakerTho]

Even though I'm not the one who plays the piano, I now plan to bring the subwoofer out of storage in the next few days to connect it with the current setup.

As for my spoken word recordings with the pair that is connected with my audio interfaces/computer, I listen at a modest volume. I'm only 95-110 cm from the speakers, so even on the rare occasions when I listen to music, the volume is rather low. Music listening happens in living area, which is plainly in need of treatment. I'm also considering something like Dirac Live for the room, which is, incidentally, where the piano is (photo below--mobile device used for photo).

View attachment 530436

That would sound a lot better if the speakers were in front of you while you played.

 

[Ilraptoria]

That would sound a lot better if the speakers were in front of you while you played.

I'll look into having the speakers closer together, to be at least around where the built-in speakers are. The placement will depend a bit on how well I can fit the stands behind the piano, while still keeping things fairly close to the wall. The room is not very wide, so everything in the room is closer to the walls than I'd like.

 

[DatSpeakerTho]

I'll look into having the speakers closer together, to be at least around where the built-in speakers are. The placement will depend a bit on how well I can fit the stands behind the piano, while still keeping things fairly close to the wall. The room is not very wide, so everything in the room is closer to the walls than I'd like.

At least point them at your ears, you're losing a lot of midrange information sitting so far off axis.

 

[staticV3]

Here's the graph:


On-axis vs 80 deg off-axis, roughly like in the photo.

 

[Ilraptoria]

At least point them at your ears, you're losing a lot of midrange information sitting so far off axis.

This is helpful. I never gave this question any thought since I'm not the one playing the instrument--I got the monitors just so that the person playing would have something more robust than the built-in speakers. I'll get them pointed toward the player's ear position straight away. She will not be enthused about how things look, but will be happy with the benefits of the improved monitor placement.

 

[Aurvandil]

Is it ok that $800 Yamaha monitors have more distortion in the midrange than $250 Edifier mr5 speakers? https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/edifier-mr5-review.64911/

 

[srkbear]

Appreciate the review @amirm

For us budget musicians using Ableton Live with a bunch of VSTs, a pair of HS5’s coupled with an HS8S sub (with some room correction) is still one of the most serviceable and affordable options for a reasonably robust home studio.

 

[Berkut]

Hello all.

FWIW, I've had a pair of second-hand Yamaha MSP-5 for more than 10 years.

They're Rock-solid and I use both inputs either for my home studio OR a Yamaha WXC-50* streaming pre-amp for CD/multiroom listening.
They lack bass, but otherwise I like them A LOT for what they reveal.

I still have not paired them with one of these "smart subs" like the iLoud Sub from IK Multimedia or Kef Kc-62, but I definitely will give it a try at some point : I have a pair of iLoud M(edium)-T(witter)-M(edium) first gen, and their onboard DSP gives such an amount of bass for such small speakers that I'm sold to the concept.

Regards

*(Amirm tested the AMP ICEpower WXA-50 version of it here : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...xa-50-streaming-amp.7964/page-29#post-2498035).

 

[BobbyTimmons]

Even though I'm not the one who plays the piano, I now plan to bring the subwoofer out of storage in the next few days to connect it with the current setup.

As for my spoken word recordings with the pair that is connected with my audio interfaces/computer, I listen at a modest volume. I'm only 95-110 cm from the speakers, so even on the rare occasions when I listen to music, the volume is rather low. Music listening happens in living area, which is plainly in need of treatment. I'm also considering something like Dirac Live for the room, which is, incidentally, where the piano is (photo below--mobile device used for photo).

View attachment 530436

The Yamaha HS8 are good in that role as the piano is an instrument with exceptionally low bass extension.

 

[tomot]

I'm gonna join on the MSP brigade, I own both the 5 and 7 models, they were supposed to have a sub, and having used them when I was really young and unexperienced, my mixes came out always really bassy.
BUT the listening is quite fun and punchy, especially on the 5. The 7 ones have an asymmetrical crossover that probably never sat good with my ears, but the quality was definitely there.
When I heard the HS series I always thought they were more forgiving and round, for lack of objective terms.
But hey, despite the MSP was designed by the same ns10 guy, Akira Nakamura, everybody who was looking for iconic prosumer equipment saw the white cones and moved the entire market towards the HS direction, despite being clearly advertised in the site, at the time, as a more "hi-fi", colored system. A noisy back port was making the sound boomy enough, and everybody was happy. But they've been improved constantly, so it would be interesting to have some references to understand how good the older "pro" models were designed to begin with.

I've sent a kind request to Erin in order to review them a couple of months ago, even if now the series is out of production they are still present in northern Europe houses. I'm sure more than few people would like to see them analyzed. Unfortunately I live in Europe so I can't send easily mine over there.