Yamaha NS-6490 3-way Budget Speaker Review

[pavuol]

[Amir in his study writing a review:]
Then again if it was the darn racoon that ate most of our cherries last year, I am not happy!!!

[meanwhile in his garden:]
"Just walking around, playing harp a little, have never stolen anything"

 

[BDWoody]

Nowadays they're neglected to cheap speaker stands duty in my little nephew's room lol.

Do you have something against your nephew?
Poor child...

 

[restorer-john]

Nowadays they're neglected to cheap speaker stands duty in my little nephew's room lol.

I think you mean "relegated".

 

[Samoas]

Might they measure (and sound) better toppled on their sides?

 

[BYRTT]

Might they measure (and sound) better toppled on their sides?

Its probably best just listen to them whatever they sound like they havoc measured so think best stay away measure them toppled or not into CAD software when Amir's 36 times horizontal directivities is flipped around with the 36 times vertical directivities and vice versa one get the minimal difference seen in below animation..

Best tweak in CAD software looks toe out NS-6490 relative to listening position so that one listen -24º to the left side of on axis, tonality should then be as in below animation..

Not they are special any smooth or nice, radars for NS-6490 verticals then horizontals..

Should one be absolute YAMAHA fan Amir measured HS5 back in February, on objective paper it many times rolls over NS-6490..

 

[Beershaun]

The Speaker Attribute Comparison chart is starting to fill in nicely! I am starting to see a pattern where there is definitely a cluster of recommended speakers around a price point and a large cluster of not recommended speakers around a price point. I hope to see some more data points in the $1000-$2000 range to see if the recommended cluster increases and if the preference rating increases as well. While not a hard/fast rule I definitely am seeing that you need a spend a certain amount on speakers if you want a well engineered pair where that is no longer the case for DACs.

 

[ThatM1key]

I wonder if Yamaha copied KLH back then. Mind you the KLH 900B came before this speaker. Both are very similar to each other.

 

[stevenswall]

It should be noted that data collection like this could point imperfections on just about any speaker, including speakers costing 100 times as much, but at the en of the day, measurements aren't the same as the way we hear. Also, the reviewer himself mentions that these would sound better than they graph. I suggest not getting so wrapped up in chart snobbery that you miss something good.

Absolutely, but what most people here are aiming for are fewer imperfections, which is what some well-measuring speakers that cost more accomplish.

As far as measurements not being the same as the way we hear, they aren't brain scans, so I don't think they are trying to measure the perception itself.

I wish I considered these good, but I think I would prefer a $300 Swan/Hivi speaker kit or saving my money.

 

[richardbruce]

I know this is an old thread but I've had a set of these cheap speakers for almost 3 years and I'd like to improve them as much as possible without replacing the drivers. I plan to install a "real" crossover then pack 'em with... something to reduce the resonance. Can anyone tell me if these crossovers are appropriate? Yamaha says the factory "crossovers" are at 2.5kHz and 8kHz. The ones I'd like to install are 850kHz and 4500kHz. I figure moving more of those mids to the mid and highs to the tweeter will clean up the muddiness. Anyone?

 

[ThatM1key]

I know this is an old thread but I've had a set of these cheap speakers for almost 3 years and I'd like to improve them as much as possible without replacing the drivers. I plan to install a "real" crossover then pack 'em with... something to reduce the resonance. Can anyone tell me if these crossovers are appropriate? Yamaha says the factory "crossovers" are at 2.5kHz and 8kHz. The ones I'd like to install are 850kHz and 4500kHz. I figure moving more of those mids to the mid and highs to the tweeter will clean up the muddiness. Anyone?

Installing a good crossovers in these kinds of speakers, is like installing Goodyear tires on a rusty Yugo. I would say your better off installing new drivers from partsexpress.

 

[richardbruce]

Installing a good crossovers in these kinds of speakers, is like installing Goodyear tires on a rusty Yugo. I would say your better off installing new drivers from partsexpress.

Installing new drivers in these bare-bones boxes? I might as well buy or build new speakers.

 

[ThatM1key]

Installing new drivers in these bare-bones boxes? I might as well buy or build new speakers.

That's what I would do. Any well-designed 6.5" woofer-speaker can easily beat these speakers.

 

[richardbruce]

I joined this group in the hopes that I might find some help improving these speakers. I have no doubt that there are better (and more expensive) speakers out there. But these are what I have, and what I want to improve. I've seen a lot of charts and graphs, but no one seems to be able to tell me if the crossovers I have in mind (and linked) will work well with these drivers. Not some other, better, and more expensive drivers that I don't have, and won't be buying. I now know who ISN'T helping me. Has anyone looked at the frequency response/curve of THESE particular drivers, and if the crossover frequencies of THESE frequencies (850kHz, 4800kHz) will work better than the factory "crossovers" (capacitors) of 4.5kHz and 8kHz in the Yamahas? Also what can I stuff/line the cabinets with that might reduce the resonances? Polyfill? Felt? Rubber? Wool? Please, helpful suggestions only - not "give up" or "buy other speakers" comments.

Thanks in advance.

 

[YSC]

I joined this group in the hopes that I might find some help improving these speakers. I have no doubt that there are better (and more expensive) speakers out there. But these are what I have, and what I want to improve. I've seen a lot of charts and graphs, but no one seems to be able to tell me if the crossovers I have in mind (and linked) will work well with these drivers. Not some other, better, and more expensive drivers that I don't have, and won't be buying. I now know who ISN'T helping me. Has anyone looked at the frequency response/curve of THESE particular drivers, and if the crossover frequencies of THESE frequencies (850kHz, 4800kHz) will work better than the factory "crossovers" (capacitors) of 4.5kHz and 8kHz in the Yamahas? Also what can I stuff/line the cabinets with that might reduce the resonances? Polyfill? Felt? Rubber? Wool? Please, helpful suggestions only - not "give up" or "buy other speakers" comments.

Thanks in advance.

with multiple resonanaces I don't think crossovers will actually help, the most you can do is to make the general FR trend flatter but those resonance peaks and nulls is hard to predict on paper if you really want to just improve this at a fixed listening position I would say you'd better off getting some REW measurements in your room and then play around with EQ to work with the FR. There's so much more than simple drivers and crossovers to make a ported speaker work, it's like asking "If I put this chip/brake into my 20 years old Corolla, will it make my lap time a lot better"

 

[richardbruce]

Again, another attempt to discourage me instead of addressing my questions directly. I don't use an equalizer. And I'm not an audio engineer, ok? I just want to improve the sound as much as possible on what I consider a very modest investment of inexpensive crossovers and some baffeling. Anyway, I don't see how EQ can do what this crossover does to "improve" his NS-6490 speakers. To my ears - and I've listened to this on both low-fi speakers as well as mid-fi headphones (Sennheiser HD-280 Pro) the results sound much closer to the source than the factory crossovers (capacitors). At 6:49 we get a look at the values of his crossover, but again, I'm no audio engineer. So I don't know what frequencies it works at. Instead of trying to discourage me and tell me "it can't be done", would someone with an open mind and a good heart please listen and tell me if they sound better (closer to the source recording)? And yes, I know YouTube compression, bla bla bla - but that affects all three versions equally. Thanks!

 

[ThatM1key]

EQ (from simple tone controls to mathematic calculations) is important to a speakers success in sounding good. Many people choose the "EQ" path because it makes a bigger impact then tweaking the crossover, room acoustics matter more. On top of that with EQ, you can fix a speakers weak points more easily. I said it again, its not worth upgrading these speakers in any way. Those Yamaha's are built like a Yugo, cheap and gets you from point A to point B, in basic terms it produces sound.

 

[tomtoo]

I joined this group in the hopes that I might find some help improving these speakers. I have no doubt that there are better (and more expensive) speakers out there. But these are what I have, and what I want to improve. I've seen a lot of charts and graphs, but no one seems to be able to tell me if the crossovers I have in mind (and linked) will work well with these drivers. Not some other, better, and more expensive drivers that I don't have, and won't be buying. I now know who ISN'T helping me. Has anyone looked at the frequency response/curve of THESE particular drivers, and if the crossover frequencies of THESE frequencies (850kHz, 4800kHz) will work better than the factory "crossovers" (capacitors) of 4.5kHz and 8kHz in the Yamahas? Also what can I stuff/line the cabinets with that might reduce the resonances? Polyfill? Felt? Rubber? Wool? Please, helpful suggestions only - not "give up" or "buy other speakers" comments.

Thanks in advance.

I know this is an old thread but I've had a set of these cheap speakers for almost 3 years and I'd like to improve them as much as possible without replacing the drivers. I plan to install a "real" crossover then pack 'em with... something to reduce the resonance. Can anyone tell me if these crossovers are appropriate? Yamaha says the factory "crossovers" are at 2.5kHz and 8kHz. The ones I'd like to install are 850kHz and 4500kHz. I figure moving more of those mids to the mid and highs to the tweeter will clean up the muddiness. Anyone?

"Can anyone tell me if these crossovers are appropriate? Yamaha says the factory "crossovers" are at 2.5kHz and 8kHz. The ones I'd like to install are 850kHz and 4500kHz"

First lets clear this, does yamaha say 2.5khz and 8khz and you say you like to shift to 850Hz and 4.5 khz???

Couse if you like to do this, you max power gets reduced.

About that change in the xover maybe you better ask in the diy corner.

 

[YSC]

Again, another attempt to discourage me instead of addressing my questions directly. I don't use an equalizer. And I'm not an audio engineer, ok? I just want to improve the sound as much as possible on what I consider a very modest investment of inexpensive crossovers and some baffeling. Anyway, I don't see how EQ can do what this crossover does to "improve" his NS-6490 speakers. To my ears - and I've listened to this on both low-fi speakers as well as mid-fi headphones (Sennheiser HD-280 Pro) the results sound much closer to the source than the factory crossovers (capacitors). At 6:49 we get a look at the values of his crossover, but again, I'm no audio engineer. So I don't know what frequencies it works at. Instead of trying to discourage me and tell me "it can't be done", would someone with an open mind and a good heart please listen and tell me if they sound better (closer to the source recording)? And yes, I know YouTube compression, bla bla bla - but that affects all three versions equally. Thanks!

Seems like you are just trying to ask for ppl to blindly support your intention to change the crossover.. as I said in my reply, unless the crossover is broken in specified value and not working/failed, playing with crossover is basically doing absolutely nothing just changing to a more expensive components as the actual slope and sound power of each driver will be exactly the same. If you play with different cross over point and or component spec value the more likely outcome (I would guess >90%) you will have one of the two results:
1) you completely break the drivers by over driving them

2) make the frequency response (I.E. the sound) more broken as the balance between the drivers are pushed off. And that one or both drivers are forced out of their comfortable performance range

Recommending EQ is a honest recommendation as I wont earn anything from you, rew EQ is so easy to use it does automatically generate the filters and all you need to do is play around and have that input into your free eq apo in windows or your dac with PEQ. It can dramatically tame the bad frequency peaks or the overall in room FR, where passive crossover can do at best case with the research facility and studying the performance in drivers and resonance from the box and port is to change the slope of FR in each driver, not inherent peaks.

You can still play around your option as money and speakers are yours just don’t come back and say we tricked you and your speaker is now broken

 

[tomtoo]

Or again, lowering the xover points that much can lead to a driver failure much faster than you think!!

WARNING!

 

[richardbruce]

Seems like you are just trying to ask for ppl to blindly support your intention to change the crossover.. as I said in my reply, unless the crossover is broken in specified value and not working/failed, playing with crossover is basically doing absolutely nothing just changing to a more expensive components as the actual slope and sound power of each driver will be exactly the same. If you play with different cross over point and or component spec value the more likely outcome (I would guess >90%) you will have one of the two results:
1) you completely break the drivers by over driving them

2) make the frequency response (I.E. the sound) more broken as the balance between the drivers are pushed off. And that one or both drivers are forced out of their comfortable performance range

Recommending EQ is a honest recommendation as I wont earn anything from you, rew EQ is so easy to use it does automatically generate the filters and all you need to do is play around and have that input into your free eq apo in windows or your dac with PEQ. It can dramatically tame the bad frequency peaks or the overall in room FR, where passive crossover can do at best case with the research facility and studying the performance in drivers and resonance from the box and port is to change the slope of FR in each driver, not inherent peaks.

You can still play around your option as money and speakers are yours just don’t come back and say we tricked you and your speaker is now broken

I know a little about driver frequency response. That's why I'm asking. Twice now I've mentioned the specific crossover frequency values of both the factory Yamahas and the crossovers I'm thinking of installing. Did you actually listen? Why are you afraid I'll come back and say "my speaker is broken"? If the crossover frequencies are inappropriate for a driver and it blows, then I MIGHT consider replacing it with a better driver. At the price of these speakers, it's no big loss. But your response still doesn't directly address my question. I'm not asking for validation. I'm just asking that you listen and perhaps comment on the values of his crossover components. And possible material for reducing resonance. Jeez...