Ok well after listening again and being moved to tears and uncontrollably laughing at the ridiculously good tonality I pulled the trigger on the ns5000. I'm hoping it will work well in my room and my electronics. Delivery in about a week, will report back.
Yamaha NS 5000
Anybody know if or when the Yamaha NS 5000 speaker will hit the US shores? There was a great thread on A’Gon on this new speaker but it is now deleted? Other than an Australian and UK review I do not see too much conversation about this speaker. I am intrigued because Doug Schneider (of SoundstageHiFi.com) said in a blog post that these new speakers were the best sounding ones at the Tokyo audio show that also had other top line speakers.
Showing 14 responses by smodtactical
Yyz that looks really cool will definitely look into it. I know right off the bat that if I overload the room I’ll start with bunging the rear port. There is also two levels of bunging based on which foam plugs you use. I actually love bass and dont mind if it’s a little heavy handed and loose so I think it should be ok. Can also open the door in my room or into room treatment. Few thoughts i have. At my last listen i was initially playing a bit low and noticed the holographic magic was not quite there. When i turned them up a bit to a level that might be the upper limit of what I would normally listen at, they grew and scaled like a dragon being awoken and became imaging masters. Now I was in a very large space listening.. probably 50x50 feet or more.. so I wonder if that was the reason. I just hope that they sound great at even low levels. I listened to them vs sopra 3 and persona 5f and I preferred the ns5000 to both of them. I find that both of those speakers didn’t have the same level of imaging, holography and pure magic and I guess beautiful tone colour that ns5000 has. The 5f was also a bit thin and brittle and had less body. Question for you. What made you choose ns5000 over persona and magico a3? I think for me the speaker that came the close to challenging the ns5000 was the talis s300. That speaker had a beautiful crystalline sound, amazing metal build quality ... but again imaging not as strong as ns5000... also was getting much better pricing on the yamaha. I think I may get some custom covers made to protect them when not in use. In addition to using the grills. Your thoughts ? |
Briefly I will say that the NS5000 presents an incredible balance between amazing detail retrieval and musical flow. Surprisingly I can hear more details on these than my HD800S ! Holographic pictures that float and dance in air around you. Authoritative bass and sub-bass that is quick and deeply extended. Its really a speaker that is spell binding and charms the pants off you. I love the airy decays off strings and instruments and wholeheartedly agree with @yyzsantabarbara that the tonality is simply superb and real sound. When a piano plays and you close your eyes, you can almost reach out and touch the piano. The finish is superb and I love the brushed aluminum baffle around the drivers. Some negatives:I don't like the grill system. If the speaker is bumped or if you touch the grills (especially the bass grill) and don't have a firm grip, its not hard for it to slide off and then you are panicking praying that it doesn't destroy the beautiful finish to scratch the drivers. I think the grills do a good job to block poking and easy to place on and off but I do wish they made a stronger more robust system here. Made in indonesia? I heard thats where this speaker is assembled/made? For the asking price imo that is unacceptable. I mean the final product is fantastic but I would still appreciate Japanese craftsmanship on such an expensive speaker (at least for me). Whose to say the quality would not be even higher in such a scenario. I just have to trust that yamaha knows what they are doing and have maximized off shore production quality. I will be writing up more in the coming days. |
Posted an update on my original impressions but to summarize here: Moving my listening position in closer was a big step up in everything, soundstage, microdetail, imaging. But an even more massive difference, un-toeing the speakers. This resulted in another huge increase in soundstage and holography... hearing things off to the sides and behind me. Truly enveloped in the sound. Utterly incredible. They sound better than at the dealers now. Feel free to read more at the link above. Anyone who gets these speakers try NOT to toe them in. |
yzsantabarbara Are you on our discord? If not come on by and have a chat with us. Same website has the link that I mentioned. As for 9H vs NS5000, thats a tough one. The NS5000 is of course much cheaper and has a super impressive soundstage.. but the 9H is no slouch and the ARC room correction makes it very versatile. From what I heard both great speakers. Im surprised your father only preferred NS5000 slightly over 3H. I know that for me the 9H is far far superior to even the 7F. And if we say 9H is in the same class of performance as the NS5000 than it shoudl be very comfortably beyond 3H. But of course this is all subjective :) Also to be fair I did not hear NS5000 vs any persona, back to back on the same exact system, so take my views wtih a grain. |
Ok so I went on a bit of an audio tour today. I am going to write up some full impressions on my website soon, sonic visions dot org. But briefly. Executive stereo Joseph audio perspective 2 graphene: This was not in an ideal setup it was kind of in a tiled hall way that is very wide, but was impressed with the dynamics, clarity and huge sound for such a small speaker. Sadly dealer not willing to budge from msrp so will pass on these. Kennedy hifi Sopra 3: Very precise crystalline top end.. kind of reminded me of the precise sound of the persona that I heard at the same dealer. Excellent imaging, separation. Yamaha NS 5000: Wow. Now bear in mind that it was a huge room they were in but not optimal. Incredible holographic imaging... acoustic images float in the air around you like projections.. the speakers completely disappear, very pure clear yet somehow extremely musically intoxicating sound. Although the sopra 3 was maybe a hair bit more detailed or possibly leaner... the yamaha had the better imaging, more lifelike natural timbre. I am extremely impressed. Going to think hard on this. |