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Yamaha 'Ear' speakers

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fdejong

fdejong

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I picked up these Yamaha NS-250Es today along with a lot of tube stuff.

Just hooked them up, and at first I wasn't too impressed. Bass seemed a bit weak, and the highs weren't great.

I turned up the tweeter(via the control on the back) and then the sax came in on 'Kind of Blue' WOAH WOAH. What amazing mids these speakers have.

The driver design is interesting too. Based on the other stuff, I guess these are 50's or 60's era?

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cute little guys aint they. ive never seen a pair of those before! judging what the xovers use in them id say 70s.
 
Is that an open backed speaker? I don't see any holes for screws in the wood in the photos. I can imagine how that large flat cone sounds like, very coherent. I'm sure I'd love it.

Now that you've stumbled upon such nice speakers, it's a shame really that they probably need new caps in their crossovers... So you better just send them over here and I'll take them off your hands ;) ;)
 
Nice looking speakers! I recently picked up a pair of Yamaha"ear" speakers, model NS-18, similar to yours but a little bigger. I also found that setting the tweeter level to the high setting made a huge difference. I havent recapped them and they still sound amazing! Differences between source components are cables are very noticable when using them. Nice find!
 
marcusekner said:
I can imagine how that large flat cone sounds like, very coherent. I'm sure I'd love it.
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Don't be so sure: I had a pair of similar Yamahas and IMO they sounded mediocre, rather wooly and indistinct. I put them in the trash.

Beware Berenek's Law which states that if you build a speaker to a notion you find attractive the speaker will sound good to you regardless of it's actual performence. ;)
 
marcusekner said:
Is that an open backed speaker? I don't see any holes for screws in the wood in the photos. I can imagine how that large flat cone sounds like, very coherent. I'm sure I'd love it.

Now that you've stumbled upon such nice speakers, it's a shame really that they probably need new caps in their crossovers... So you better just send them over here and I'll take them off your hands ;) ;)
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There is a cover for the back, but it's just a mesh screen, so effectively, it is an open-backed speaker.

Good point on the xover caps - replacing those might open up the top end some more too.
 
Tom Brennan said:
Don't be so sure: I had a pair of similar Yamahas and IMO they sounded mediocre, rather wooly and indistinct. I put them in the trash.

Beware Berenek's Law which states that if you build a speaker to a notion you find attractive the speaker will sound good to you regardless of it's actual performence. ;)
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Do you remember which model you had? I found the bass lacking a bit, but that incredible midrange really blew me away. I can't imagine throwing a pair of speakers as nice as these in the trash!
 
fdejong said:
Do you remember which model you had? I found the bass lacking a bit, but that incredible midrange really blew me away. I can't imagine throwing a pair of speakers as nice as these in the trash!
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I had NS-18s. I thought the midrange was pretty bad; cloudy, muddy--indistinct. The speakers had serious competition for room in the house; at the time I four hi-fis in the house going using Altec 19s, Heath AS-21s, Altec 890C Boleros and JBL Pro CS 3115s. And in the garage Bozak coaxials.

Well, if we all agreed we'd have little to talk about.
 
kfa888 said:
:thumbsdn: why not simply give them to someone who would appreciated it. I don't understand this.
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And just who would that have been?

Once I was criticized here for trashing laser discs; I was chided and told I should give them away if nothing else. As it turned out I had to get in the car and travel 75 miles one way to give the things to a fella AKer. Screw that.
 
I bought a pair of Yamaha "ear" speakers new in about 1973. Yamaha never called them ear speakers, they were "Assymetrical Bass Drivers", and were designed to reduce driver/cabinet resonance. I can't remember the model, but they were tall-boys (now called towers) about three and a half feet tall with teak veneer. They were two ways and weighed in at about 100lbs. per side.

They were beautiful speakers, and sounded superb. The ones that I had were infinite baffle and I never had a problem with their bass response - it was very clean and deep. And, yes, gorgeous midrange. Yours probably just need to be recaooed.

I wish I still had those.

Kelley
 
kfa888 said:
:thumbsdn: why not simply give them to someone who would appreciated it. I don't understand this.
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For every mediocre piece of gear I've wasted my money on, I wish somebody had thrown it in the trash before I was fooled into thinking it would be amazing.
 
I have great sound in my setup with the NS-18. They remind me in some ways to Apogee Stages I had years ago. Keep in mind they seem very sensitive to equipment in chain. Maybe there was something wrong with Toms pair or simply they didnt work well in his setup. Regardless, they dont deserve to be tossed out!
 
I set stuff on the sidewalk with a free sign and they are gone in hours. I quick post here would have made them disappear and kept them from the land fill. As these are unique thats what i would have done. Just seems a shame.
 
JohnVF said:
For every mediocre piece of gear I've wasted my money on, I wish somebody had thrown it in the trash before I was fooled into thinking it would be amazing.
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You disregard AK Rule #4---Never admit that anything you bought, built, found or "scored" sounded bad.

If pressed you can always fall back on the "it just needed new caps" gambit.
 
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