Yamaha NS-690 II Speakers?? Help Identify

I had a pair of these since they were new in '79. Essentially the NS 1000 without the beryllium drivers and with a plain paper cone woofer. Virtually the same crossover, which is why they sound so good. I sold them only recently for very little to a collector in NYC because of foam rot and cabinet damage and because I had too much equipment, but they were my primary speakers till 1995.

90 db efficient, steep rolloff of bass below 45 hz, a wrinkle in the response curve around 2K hz, but otherwise pretty flat. One of the few higher-efficiency designs specifically designed for moderate-powered (< 80 watt) solid state amplifiers. More info on Speaker Asylum list:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/speakers/bbs.html

Fritz

I had a pair of these back in '79 also. Mated them with a Yamaha B-2 amp and a Holman preamp. Smooth sound with decent bass down to the mid 30's in my room. Old retail price was $690 (my purchase)

That's about right, the price when I was looking for them was between $675 and $750, which was about $300 less than the 1000's. I too am now looking to get the woffers re-foamed. How much did the job cost you?

I use a pair of rebuilt ns-690's as my main studio monitors---Pleasant and accurate- I find my mixes translate very well!

For the age and price--awsome!

B

a freind gave me a pair and the bass speaker is blown out on both of them what a good replacement?

I bought a pair in the 70s and still have them and in mint condition. They started to sound scratchy because of the foam disintegrating so I ordered a re-foam kit last month from http://www.simplyspeakers.com. It was easy to repair but you have to take your time getting the old foam off the surround and frame and cost under $30. They sound as good as the day I bought them. A beautiful looking and sounding pair of speakers. I believe I paid about $700 for the pair new.

hey there, I use the 690 mk III as studio monitors as well. I grew up listening to this pair of speakers as a kid (they were my dads) have had them refoamed and a repair on the cross over. I know the sound of these guys intimately and have never been dissapointed and manage great mixes out of them. Thirt odd years service to my family must be saaying something!!!!!

I owned a pair for a while (1976-1981). They were decent, but had 'holes' in the response curve that I could hear. I eventually sold them and moved to the Rogers Studio 1, which was a far better speaker. After 20 years with those, I sold them and got a nice set of Yamaha NS-1000M's, a far better speaker than either of the others.

This should be of interest:

http://www11.plala.or.jp/se_ke5583/YAMAHA/speaker/index.html

The specs on Yamaha NS-690II:
Impedance: 8 ohm
Frequency response: 35-20,000 KHz
Sensitivity: 90 db
40 watts nominal/80 watts max
Woofer: 300mm cone type
Midrange: 75mm soft dome
Tweeter: 30mm soft dome
Adjustable midrange and tweeter output
Dimensions: 14"(W) x25"(H) x12.5"(D)
Weight: 59 lbs each