Yamaha NS-5000

[dualazmak]

I auditioned NS-2000A the day before yesterday at Tokyo International Audio Show 2022.

I expected to directly compare NS-2000A with NS-5000, but there was no NS-5000 at the Show; quite disappointing. The dedicated Yamaha show room was not acoustically best tuned, and I compared the sound of NS-2000A with NS-5000 in my brain/memory. My frank impression was that I myself like NS-5000 better than NS-2000A.

I still love better/best, however, my "fully renovated NS-1000 (not NS-1000M) in full active mode eliminating all the LC-network and attenuators". In my setup, all the SP drivers of NS-1000 are now directly driven by dedicated amplifiers, and I added super-tweeters Fostex T925As (driven by dedicated amp) as well as large heavy L&R sub-woofers Yamaha YST-SW1000. Furthermore precision time alignment (0.1 msec precision) over all the SP drivers has been achieved in my setup.

Please refer to my post here and here for my latest multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier stereo setup with renovated NS-1000.

At least for myself, I like better the sealed rigid design of NS-1000 than the bass-reflex (ported) NS-5000 (and NS-2000A); I do believe (and actually hear) that the stunning 8.8 cm Beryllium midrange dome JA-0801 of NS-1000 (and NS-1000M) covering 500 Hz - 6,000 Hz is still the best miracle midrange driver ever produced.

 

[Els]

I auditioned NS-2000A the day before yesterday at Tokyo International Audio Show 2022.

I expected to directly compare NS-2000A with NS-5000, but there was no NS-5000 at the Show; quite disappointing. The dedicated Yamaha show room was not acoustically best tuned, and I compared the sound of NS-2000A with NS-5000 in my brain/memory. My frank impression was that I myself like NS-5000 better than NS-2000A.

I still love better/best, however, my "fully renovated NS-1000 (not NS-1000M) in full active mode eliminating all the LC-network and attenuators". In my setup, all the SP drivers of NS-1000 are now directly driven by dedicated amplifiers, and I added super-tweeters Fostex T925As (driven by dedicated amp) as well as large heavy L&R sub-woofers Yamaha YST-SW1000. Furthermore precision time alignment (0.1 msec precision) over all the SP drivers has been achieved in my setup.

Please refer to my post here and here for my latest multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier stereo setup with renovated NS-1000.

At least for myself, I like better the sealed rigid design of NS-1000 than the bass-reflex (ported) NS-5000 (and NS-2000A); I do believe (and actually hear) that the stunning 8.8 cm Beryllium midrange dome JA-0801 of NS-1000 (and NS-1000M) covering 500 Hz - 6,000 Hz is still the best miracle midrange driver ever produced.

After reading all the positive and glorious descriptions and comments of the Yamaha NS1000M on this sight and others, I joined the club and bought a pair, which I like a lot, however here is my 2 cents. On the quality of the midrange. First of all, I don't think the Bellerium is intirelly responsable for this quality. It is mostly due to the size the diameter and suspenssion. I am a big fan of very large midrange domes when done right , Infinity made some great ones, I also have some good rare German midrange domes. Size matters. I really like the Yamahas and would not trade them for any new skinny overpriced towers of today. However, I do not want to diss anyone but the reigning king of the midranges is the ATC dome, no contest. On the ATC the midrange is so good that it stands out way too much, The Yamahas are more coherent and balanced: They lack bass but I can correct that with my Dac's equalizer.

 

[DSJR]

NS1000's with controls set 'flat,' had an upper mid lift but I recall from numerous HiFi Choice plots that it went up gently in a straight line from 100 to 1kHz. I had a pair for eighteen months some decades back and didn't like them overmuch, finding the midrange a bit 'synthetic' and slightly 'dead' in tone. Looking back, the amp I used may not have been up to it in many in fairness (I didn't then fully appreciate the advantages of clean copious power). Would be nice to hear them again I have to say and of course used prices are going up into collectors' territory!

 

[gene_stl]

Even though the NS1000 was the flagship of Yamaha's line when they came out in the 1970s the engineers designing them STILL had to make some compromises. In that era four way speaker systems were unusual since a four way crossover ate a tremendous percentage of amplifier power and caused a gyrated load to be presented to the not as good amplifiers of the day. And ginormous speakers just weren't as common. The big Altecs and JBLs were often two way and sometimes threeway but the four way JBLs did not come out until later. There were a few monster speaker boxes but not as many as there are now.

Since the NS1000 was a three way and they wanted it to have decent bass performance it was given a 12 inch wooofer which is probably not optimal to cross to the 88mm Be midrange. When they wanted to make a statement they built the GF-1 which was a four way and featured four built in amplifiers and electronic crossover and a servo drive wooofer. (just like mine, although I was not able to implement a servo drive wooofer. I did look at them though) They also had several other models which resembled the NS 1000 such as the NS 2000 and one or two others.

In my not humble opinion a four way is the most reasonable way to build a speaker system. (But see ardacers post about his five way that looks a lot like a Linkwitz LX 521 )

20-20k "omni" IB active 5-way build. Relativelly affordable.

Title says it all. This will be a build in progress. It absolutelly should have a completely perfect and uniform dispersion, very low thd, very, very low imd through the whole range. It will be built in a wall, left and right to the tv. I expect the left channel to be about 6db max reinforced...

www.audiosciencereview.com

My waf dipole speaker design. Waffle.

Hey man nice setup, anything that’s better the lx521 is a nice accomplishment. Fellow owner here

www.audiosciencereview.com

If you make it four way and active you have to try to make it sound bad. (See also dualazmaks thread about his five way active system based on the NS 1000.)

Multi-Channel, Multi-Amplifier Audio System Using Software Crossover and Multichannel-DAC

Nice detective work locating the AC noise riding the musical waveform. Fortunately, I have no AC noise at all in my digital and analog signals!

www.audiosciencereview.com

In a four way (or greater way) system it is easier to keep the drivers radiating into half space and also not have a too small diameter diaphragm having to over extend it self to make sound on its lower range. The range of any single driver is two to three octaves but not more than one decade. This helps control harmonic and IM distortion which is also helped by the active system. Direct control of the voice coils by amplifiers without a crossover stuck in between also helps damp the voice coils.

On my system using NS1000 midranges I cross to a ten inch upper range woofer. It goes from 100 to 1000Hz. I made this change from the yamaha set point(500Hz) because to me the notion of an 88 mm driver disturbing the air for a two foot wavelength seemed out of range.

I am expanding to surround and will quad amp a pair of NS1000 with the 12 inch removed and replaced with a ten inch and sitting on a sub wooofer box. Four way , active and the same crossovers as the big speakers. I have not yet decided whether to replace the NS 1000 tweeters with NS 500 tweeters in the surrounds. I doubt the difference would be discernable in an abx test.

 

[Steven Holt]

Measurements are from a German hifi magazine

Guys, I'm no expert here, but those look like pretty damn good measurements. Is the Yamaha speaker line available in the US?

 

[hege]

Some aussie hifi measurements scraped from web.archive.org

 

[Ra1zel]

I don't know how on-axis measurments omitning sound power and directivity can be relevant in 2022

 

[gvl]

Finally found a reasonably priced pair of NS-1000Ms locally. I for some reason expected them to be bright but they are not. The clarity of midrange and treble is hypnotizing. I’m very impressed how undirectional they are, I can move around the room with little change in sound. Looking forward to spending more time with them. I was surprised to read they are rated at 100W peak power only, I suppose that was standard back then.

 

[dualazmak]

Finally found a reasonably priced pair of NS-1000Ms locally. I for some reason expected them to be bright but they are not. The clarity of midrange and treble is hypnotizing. I’m very impressed how unidirectional they are, I can move around the room with little change in sound. Looking forward to spending more time with them. I was surprised to read they are rated at 100W peak power only, I suppose that was standard back then.

Very nice to hear so!

How about to change your NS-1000M into fully active three-way SP by removing/bypassing the LC-network plus attenuators and to drive them directly with three amplifiers? In this case, you may establish 0.1 msec precision time alignment (to be measured and tuned at your listening position) between the SP drivers (woofer, Be-midrange, Be-tweeter) and of course between L-SP and R-SP. You will be really impressed by the total sound performances of such fully active directly driven time-aligned NS-1000M, I believe.

Please refer to my post here and here for my latest multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier stereo setup with NS-1000 (not NS-1000M).

These posts on my project thread would be also of your interest, I assume;
- Yamaha's original passive LC network in NS-1000 (same for NS-1000M): #033
- Difference between Yamaha NS-1000 and NS-1000M, and a few of reference websites for these two speakers: #084

 

[gvl]

Funny you should say that but I had a similar project lined up to convert vintage JBL L100s but I stalled. With the OKTO DAC8 and NCore modules same as in the 125W Hypex plate amps I have everything but free time. So yes, but it may take some time to get it going.

 

[Gox]

After reading all the positive and glorious descriptions and comments of the Yamaha NS1000M on this sight and others, I joined the club and bought a pair, which I like a lot, however here is my 2 cents. On the quality of the midrange. First of all, I don't think the Bellerium is intirelly responsable for this quality. It is mostly due to the size the diameter and suspenssion. I am a big fan of very large midrange domes when done right , Infinity made some great ones, I also have some good rare German midrange domes. Size matters. I really like the Yamahas and would not trade them for any new skinny overpriced towers of today. However, I do not want to diss anyone but the reigning king of the midranges is the ATC dome, no contest. On the ATC the midrange is so good that it stands out way too much, The Yamahas are more coherent and balanced: They lack bass but I can correct that with my Dac's equalizer.

If I may add I still remember Electro Voice vented midrange driver from interface gamma and delta which per my opinion s tough rival to Be mid. I compared them both with Richard Bona music but kept NS-690

 

[Trackball02]

Finally found a reasonably priced pair of NS-1000Ms locally. I for some reason expected them to be bright but they are not. The clarity of midrange and treble is hypnotizing. I’m very impressed how undirectional they are, I can move around the room with little change in sound. Looking forward to spending more time with them. I was surprised to read they are rated at 100W peak power only, I suppose that was standard back then.

gvl, I'm in the SoCal region.

I have a pair of the NS-1000 (ebony wood) that I upgraded the crossover (using stock capacitor values) and replaced the binding posts, and installed them on top of 1" steel sand filled stands. Killer speakers. Staying in the same theme, I now have a new pair of NS-5000 in the same room.

For all of you Yamaha NS fans, a rare opportunity to audition and hopefully measure both. Let me know if anyone is interested in a listening session.

 

[dualazmak]

For all of you Yamaha NS fans, a rare opportunity to audition and hopefully measure both. Let me know if anyone is interested in a listening session.

I am here (in Japan), of course very much interested! I should ask you, however, "where are you located (in South California)?" (I am much familiar with LA to San Diego area, especially La Jolla and around there.) How long will you keep both SPs in your room (or almost permanently?).

I auditioned NS-5000 several times, and NS-1000 (I have), NS-1000M, NS-1000x, NS-2000 so many times, but never did comparative listening to NS-5000 and NS-1000 (or NS-1000M) in a same room acoustic environments.

So far, at least my personal impression is that I like better my NS-1000 (sealed) in multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier configuration than NS-5000 (rear-ported) in passive mode driven by Yamaha M-5000 + C-5000 (I recently intensively auditioned at Yamaha's dedicated audio room/cottage near Hamamatsu City, see the photo below); but direct comparison in my audio room has not yet been done.

Just for your reference, if you would be interested, please visit my project thread; you can find my latest system setup here here.

 

[Trackball02]

Sounds like an opportunity to send one into Amir to run through the Klipple!

Jim

Jim,
Not an easy feat to ship a NS 5000 (and possibly a NS 1000) single speaker, let me think about it!
J.

 

[Trackball02]

I am here (in Japan), of course very much interested! I should ask you, however, "where are you located (in South California)?" (I am much familiar with LA to San Diego area, especially La Jolla and around there.) How long will you keep both SPs in your room (or almost permanently?).

I auditioned NS-5000 several times, and NS-1000 (I have), NS-1000M, NS-1000x, NS-2000 so many times, but never did comparative listening to NS-5000 and NS-1000 (or NS-1000M) in a same room acoustic environments.

So far, at least my personal impression is that I like better my NS-1000 (sealed) in multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier configuration than NS-5000 (rear-ported) in passive mode driven by Yamaha M-5000 + C-5000 (I recently intensively auditioned at Yamaha's dedicated audio room/cottage near Hamamatsu City, see the photo below); but no direct comparison in my audio room has not yet been done.
View attachment 261944

Just for your reference, if you would be interested, please visit my project thread; you can find my latest system setup here.

I'm in the Pasadena area, yes, both the NS 1000 and NS 5000 are in the same room, I am currently keeping the NS 1000 on the side, in order to optimize the NS 5000, I recently acquired a new amp and breaking things in.

Impressive project you have going with your NS 1000s, I wish you are nearby for me to listen. I took the opposite direction for the NS 1000 using a Final Audio 829b SET amp, the 18 watt output really mates well with the 1000s. Nothing fancy, but just a delight to listen to.

 

[Trackball02]

Time for a shoot out!
The NS 1000 (ebony wood) are on custom 1 inch sand filled tubular steel stands and 3 inch casters to match the driver height of the NS 5000.
The NS 5000 are on the stock stands, installed GAIA footers and elevated on 3 in solid walnut butcher blocks (I prefer the tweeters to be ear level).

Amp: Dartzeel NHB 108, model 1.

This is fun, still optimizing speaker placement, and listening comments will follow.

 

[steve59]

Please continue, I'm interested in the ns5000 and would appreciate listening impressions. comparisons with other speakers always help in understanding room interaction, tho' source can still be the great equalizer.

 

[Jello82]

View attachment 266144
Time for a shoot out!
The NS 1000 (ebony wood) are on custom 1 inch sand filled tubular steel stands and 3 inch casters to match the driver height of the NS 5000.
The NS 5000 are on the stock stands, installed GAIA footers and elevated on 3 in solid walnut butcher blocks (I prefer the tweeters to be ear level).

Amp: Dartzeel NHB 108, model 1.

This is fun, still optimizing speaker placement, and listening comments will follow.

Same here, I haver a pair of NS-1000 (ebony version) with similar stands and IsoAcoustics Gaia footers with crossovers with new capacitors. I'm very tempted to try the the NS-5000 if they're a noticeable leap in sound quality, so your impression will be highly appreciated. Please let us know the results of your shoout-out. I'm satisfied with the sound of my NS-1000. I'm moving them with a Yamaha A-S3200. I know the NS-5000 will have a deeper and stronger bass response with a different taste due to being a bass-reflex enclousure against the acoustic-suspension design of the NS-1000. I compensate the bass response of the NS-1000 place them very close a rear wall. If the difference is not big enough to justify the expense I could stay with my NS-1000 and try a new phono stage, cartridge and DAC with that money. And of course, buy some music.

Thanks

 

[RobL]

A pair of these just came up for sale on CAM. Located in BC (not affiliated). Looks like a pretty good deal if legit…tempted to jump ship lol

 

[Abe_W]

I am here (in Japan), of course very much interested! I should ask you, however, "where are you located (in South California)?" (I am much familiar with LA to San Diego area, especially La Jolla and around there.) How long will you keep both SPs in your room (or almost permanently?).

I auditioned NS-5000 several times, and NS-1000 (I have), NS-1000M, NS-1000x, NS-2000 so many times, but never did comparative listening to NS-5000 and NS-1000 (or NS-1000M) in a same room acoustic environments.

So far, at least my personal impression is that I like better my NS-1000 (sealed) in multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier configuration than NS-5000 (rear-ported) in passive mode driven by Yamaha M-5000 + C-5000 (I recently intensively auditioned at Yamaha's dedicated audio room/cottage near Hamamatsu City, see the photo below); but no direct comparison in my audio room has not yet been done.
View attachment 261944

Just for your reference, if you would be interested, please visit my project thread; you can find my latest system setup here.

I heard the NS 5000 at Axpona in an awful room, unfortunately. However, it was able to showcase an extreme amount of detail without being an analytical speaker. I would probably put it up against some Magicos and TADs. Compared to those speakers, it would be a bargain, pricewise.