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.
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.
The smearing you you mention is something I also had with my speakers in my small office. Adding the GIK acoustic panels at the first reflection was an amazing improvement for me. That smearing of the sound disappeared.
I am with you on the buy something. Actually I was going to buy the NS5000 at the public NS5000 event at the local dealer. I wanted to hear it in the bigger demo room just in case.
Well this thing called Covaid-19 hit and the event got cancelled. So I am twiddling by thumbs until I can drive down and buy them.
BTW - The reason I have not bought anything until now is because I only want to spend $5K to buy my next system, speakers + amps + DAC. That initial $5K is the amount I invested in the stock market to spend foolishly on audio gear.
So today $5K = $40K system. LOL (first time I used this)
The Luxman amps are out and I will get the T+A PV3100 HV integrated instead. I have no physical space to put the separates due to extra crap I am putting into the office space for a new work project.
This an audio site and not a finance site so my last comment on money is that volatility in the stock market is not necessary a bad thing. You can make money with stock prices going up and down. That $5K investment started about 5 or 6 years ago so this is not money falling from the sky. It’s been a grind.
My virtual system photos will get updated once the gear is in place.
@highend666
You seem to be a little connected with Yamaha products. Do you think there will be an NS4000 in the pipeline? I got my DAC and preamp for my Yamaha based office system today. Something in-between the NS3000 and the NS5000 could work out better for me than the large NS5000.
I don't know.. but I would love to see a NS-4000 sometime in the future. I think a Three-Way NS-4000 would work out better for most of us with smaller rooms..
Bought my NS-5000's from Shelley's last year. We have also seen NS-5000 in parts at Yamaha's Innovation Road museum in Hamamatsu, Japan. The display says it was designed by a team of young engineers. The tweeter and midrange are 4 ohm designs. The woofer is 6 ohms. Max input power is 600 watts. The mitered plywood and deep gloss finish are straight out of their grand piano division.
The woofer is the most vivid I have heard in terms of revealing instruments. It barley moves even at high volumes driven by 500 watt Ice Module monoblocks. The dome midrange is an ingenious low mass solution.
My problem was my wife refused to buy a speaker taller than she is, 5 feet even. That rules out many fine choices. She was up at the desk paying for these before I had made my mind up. Three of a kind drivers are what those young engineers achieved. It spoils you.
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