Yamaha NS1000M Help, Advice, PLEASE


Hello all. I purchased a nice pair of the legendary Yamaha NS1000M today. I got a good deal on them, and I actually bought them with the intention of trading them for a nice pair of Planar speakers. Then I made the mistake of hooking them up. Oh my. These things are wonderful. Perhaps the ugliest speaker ever made, but truly astonishing sound. I hate to say it, but in some ways superior to my (formerly) unassailable Meadowlark Shearwater "Hotrods". Enough background. I have several questions.

1. This pair was made in 1981 (original stickers still on the rear), and they use the old-style spring-loaded terminals. I hate those things. Will it ruin the value or be a bad idea to install a nice pair of WBT 5-way binding posts or similar?

2. If keeping the original terminals is best, what type of speaker wire should I use? The darn things won't accept anything heavier than bare 14 ga. wire. Is there an audiophile wire designed for this application, or am I relegated to the ole Radio Shack "zipcord"?

3. This pair has the black ash finish, and they are not attractive. Would it be a bad idea (or affect the value) to have the cabinets refinished and stained a medium cherry or oak?

4. The 12" woofers are dirty; really dirty. Is there a way to get behind the metal mesh covers to clean them up? My vacuum will get some of it, but I really need to run a tacky cloth over them to get all the crud. Suggestions?? Are the metal mesh covers removable?

5. I currently have these monsters on my carpeted floor, and the mids and tweeters are significantly lower than my ear-level. What brand, type and size speaker stands are recommended for these speakers.

Thanks all. I'm awestruck. Any other suggestions from you NS1000 fans will be greatly welcome!! -David
klipschking

Showing 2 responses by metralla

I owned a pair of these from 1980 to 1985. They were a fantastic speaker in their day and in demand - I bought a demo pair and sold them for more than I paid 5 years later.

The mid range and top end on the Yammies is first class. The beryllium tweeter and 5" midrange drivers were out of this world technology, only possible by a company like Yamaha with deep pockets and huge research labs. The cabinets borrowed some of the bracing and finishing techniques used by their piano division.

The bass is flat to 50Hz and then slowly rolls off, in the normal sealed box (acoustic suspension) slope. The bass is nice and deep, but slow compared to other speakers I owned (for example, Linn SARA).

But the NS1000s are extremely listenable and sweet, but they need a REALLY big room to allow the images to form properly - in my opinion. I took mine once to an audiophile friend who had a huge room and the sound there was much more impressive than at my place.

1. I had vampire wire speaker cables that were terminated with a gold pin. This works fine in those speaker terminals.

3. Mine were also the black ash. They were very nicely finished and yours must have deteriorated over time. I loved the look of mine, but I do like black.

4. I don't know how to get the grill off.

5. Stands are very important. I had a shop make me some custom all-welded stands out of very heavy square tubing.

Enjoy your Yammies. I still regret selling mine when I had to move from the city to the coutry, and was heading to a smaller room. When I bought a pair of Coincident Super Eclipses 7 years ago, in memory of the NS1000s, I ordered these in black! ;-)

Regards,
On the pricing ... I bought mine new from a dealer in Brisbane Australia in 1980. The list price was $1400 and I paid $1250 for a demo pair.

Regards,