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
Like many here, I have the best of both worlds S/H Yammys + Quad 63s with VTL power amp ... for subtlety in the living room; NS-1000Ms upstairs for power and clean fast impact together with subtlety
[Thinks: Should I logically unload the Quads :-) ]. With Spectral 150 power amp and DMC6 pre and their model 1000 CD, MIT giant-killer speaker cables -- best system I ever had.
In other words, anachrophilia rules.
Good choice and lucky find. I live in Japan and I've had a pair of NS-1000X's for many years, and like them so much I finally got a second pair. I've A/B compared them to many, many high-end speakers and in many systems at the shops over the years, and I am convinced they are among the best all around speakers ever made, and certainly so in their price range. Few speakers can compete with them across all musical genres, and they play all the positives and expose any flaw in your system clearly.

The NS-1000X has the same wonderful beryllium dome midrange and tweeter as the NS-1000M, but a better woofer, made of carbon fiber, and a heavier cabinet. The sound quality is similar to yours, but with improved bass.

The NS-1000M is very common here in Japan, and they go for about US$500 in ok condition to about US$800 in minty-new condition. Unless yours is a flawlessly new-looking collector's item, which from the "dirt on the speakers" it sounds not to be, a modification of the terminal would not lower the price here in Japan. I've seen several units with such modification in the same price range as for unmodified units here.

The NS-1000X's have a screw-type terminal with holes too small to run thick cable through. On mine I just painstakingly stuff as much thick Monster cable into the holes as I can. I use heavy Monster cable that I've had since the '80's, because that was the going thing at the time the speakers were made and used by many recording studios here at the time. The sound result is excellent.

As for stands, there were wooden stands made for them originally, and not difficult to find through Japanese shops and auctions on the net. Their virtue is an angled board at the bottom that projects the bass outward.

I have two different systems in different rooms, and different approaches to stands. In one room the floor is soft tatami mats, and so I have first a wood sheet, then a marble slab, both about half an inch thick, and then brass cones that are fitted on stone cylinders about 2 inches thick. The cones are thus sandwiched between marble. They are not expensive cones, about US$8 each or so. In this room I usually sit on the floor or listen in bed, and the height is fine, with the tweeters at about ear level.

In the other room I usually sit at a computer desk with the Yammies behind me. These are up on cement building blocks, and isolated with stone tiles and then the same kind of cones on marble cylinders.

I tried loads of isolators and stand systems over the years, and these work well for me. The cones sandwiched between stone really sharpen-up the bass especially, and make everything even more clear.

Welcome to the Yammie sound world. It will be difficult for you to change from here.

What I do is have fun pairing the Yammies with various bookshelves, rather than trying to replace them with anything. To do this I use wonderful old Luxman amps that run 4 speakers as A+B.

In the tatami room I have them paired with B&W805s. This combination is great. The 805s absolutely pale in comparison to the Yammies, but their high-end tweeters are sweet and somehow they synergize when all 4 speakers are on.

In the other room I currently have Quad 12L's, which are warm speakers and not very neutral, but somehow make nice contrast with the Yammies on a lot of music. I find this combination a little lacking, and still seek a better match. Today I'll compare them to some Sonus Faber Concerto Homes, but I feel those are too far from the clear Yammy sound I like. Perhaps the best bookshelf match for me would be Adam A7s.

But I ramble....

It seems that there were some variations on the stands that came with the NS-1000Ms originally. Over time, I've seen on the web: a metal height-adjustable one, a wooden design that apparently amplifies the base by its shape and recently, I came across (and acquired) a square-tubed metal framed set. (They came with a pair of NS-1000Ms that I bought, that need some work - some refininishing, a new woofer & terminals).

As for the square-tubed metal stands, they are not angled at all, though you can achieve different heights depending on how you orient them. They also have 2 little plastic plugs that block 2 small holes. Does anyone know if these holes were meant to be used to fill the speaker stands with sand? Or, are the stands meant to be hollow?

I'm really enjoying this thread!
the 1000&1000M are clever designs.
they can be used in relatively small areas - studio control rooms.

flexibility is a key benefit, virtually any amplifier will sund good with them. in a chat with another owner, he suggested tryingthem with a really powerful amp - 'to smoth out, the performance.

I used luxman cl32/mq3600 tube combo,Luxman sq38S tubed then kenwood 1000C/1000M solid state (still have). using the puny 7W/channel class-d of
 my yamaha pdm-4220 tv-monitor work well.

cabling - no fancy stuff needed. 1000 strand per silver coated coppper- per core(german unbranded) was the most exotic I have used on my 2 pairs. its not a big issue.

speaker height is. the mid axis of tweeter and mid-range, should be at ear level. cabinets slightly towed in, with tweeters nearest back wall. - experiment.
the woofers on these have a rubber surround, does not degenerate like foam on Ns-2000(maybe NS-1000X,too?- comment on that someone) - which avoids a complex, expensive repair issue.
the crossovers feature self-healing capacitors=long-life. 

by comprimising on the eveness of the bass response, the efficiency -Q of the powerful magnetic circuit, is realized                                    .a new pair of NS-5000, is c.£/$/€15000-16000 using zylon not Be - the nearest speaker to them.


unique and wonderful, buy a domestically- used pair.