There's no such thing as the perfect loudspeaker, nor is there ever likely to be one. Most manufacturers don't even try – theirs is a volume business where the trick is to produce a good-sounding product at an affordable price. There's nothing wrong with this, as perfection can often be the enemy of the good. Yet sometimes hi-fi companies do reach for the stars, and attempt to come up with an innovative, no-holds-barred design. Yamaha's NS-1000/1000M was precisely one of these. Love it or loathe it, following its launch in 1974 it became recognised as a landmark product.

With the NS-1000M, Yamaha set out to make a fully rounded high-end loudspeaker, one that delivered a wide bandwidth, handled a massive amount of power by the standards of the day, had very low distortion and a lightning-fast transient response. It was an audacious product and one that would become a particular favourite in US and Japanese recording studios for its combination of transparency, bandwidth and power handling.

Metal Head
This loudspeaker is most famous for its beryllium tweeter and midrange dome drive units. Without these, it simply would not be what it is – think of a Ferrari Daytona without an engine or gearbox made in Maranello. From these bespoke drivers, everything else followed. Indeed, you could say it was simply an extremely well executed showcase for these drivers since much of the rest of the speaker is pretty conventional for its time.

Ideally a drive unit needs to be super strong (rigid), exceptionally light and well damped. Done this way, it should be able to capture every last nuance of the sound at great speed, without distorting it. This is easier said than done because a conventional moving-coil transducer is limited in performance by the material used for its cone or dome. Back in the early '70s, makers of high-end speakers were moving away from using paper for their domes and cones to heavy plastics such as Bextrene – as seen in KEF's legendary series of drive units of that period [see HFN Mar '12]. Yamaha's use of super-light beryllium seemed the stuff of science fiction by comparison.

Before the launch of Yamaha's domestic NS-1000 and the 'monitor' NS-1000M version, there had been various attempts at making metal-coned drivers, but these were crude and not entirely successful. That's why it was all the more remarkable that Yamaha's researchers came up with a way to use beryllium in a safe and consistent manner using a special vacuum deposition process. Beryllium is the lightest metal in the periodic table to be stable. Before it are the gases hydrogen and helium and the metal lithium, which burns in air. Contrast that with the likes of magnesium, aluminium and titanium, which are heavier metals, and you can see why beryllium is ideal.

The NS-1000 came in domestic and monitor variants, the latter having a black finish

Upscaled Version
The NS-1000M's two upper drive units are essentially differently sized versions of the same design. The 30mm JA-0513 tweeter weighed just 0.03g and was 0.03mm thick – claimed Yamaha – compared to a typical soft dome tweeter of the day which was said to be 0.1g and 0.3mm respectively. The 88mm JA-0801 mid driver was effectively an upscaled version of the tweeter, with the same form of beryllium dome, surrounds and magnet system.

For the NS-1000, Yamaha designers had specified the company's JA-3058 300mm bass unit to do the heavy lifting. This had a light but stiff paper cone. It went into the NS-1000's ultra-rigid 39kg cabinet, with every part of the walls at least 30mm thick. At 710x395x369mm (hwd), it was a fairly standard sized large Japanese loudspeaker but Yamaha engineers thought it well able to do the job. It was finished in wood veneer and topped off with a polyurethane lacquer. The 12dB/octave crossover brought in the midband driver at 6kHz and the bass driver came in at 500Hz, enabling the midrange driver to handle a wide frequency span with no crossing over near the sensitive middle C presence region. Meanwhile, treble and midrange level pads were fitted to trim the output of each driver to suit the room. To the rear, the speaker sported the (then) standard spring-clip speaker terminals.

Ticket on rear of speaker detailed the cabinet finish

M Power
The NS-1000M was an attempt by Yamaha to distil the strengths of the NS-1000 into a speaker for the professional studio market. While similar to its predecessor, a number of improvements ratcheted up its sonic performance. Rather than the large lounge-friendly wood veneered cabinet used for the NS-1000, the M variant had a more compact 675x375x326mm (hwd) enclosure that was stiffer, lighter (31kg) and finished in satin black. It also came fitted with Yamaha's uprated JA-3058A woofer, complete with a metal grille to protect it for use in a pro audio environment. These modifications delivered a cleaner, tauter sound that was able to truly capitalise on the excellence of the tweeter and midrange drivers. Meanwhile, bass was tighter and faster, with less overhang.

It's important to remember that the NS-1000M was launched at a time when many hi-fi loudspeakers – even quite respectable ones – had a limited power handling of 30W or less. With this in mind, Yamaha's 100W rating was spectacular. Despite its sealed-box design, it was also very sensitive for its day, Yamaha quoting 90dB/1W/1m. By way of context, popular mainstream hi-fi speakers of that time, such as the Wharfedale Denton, couldn't do better than 85dB. The quoted frequency response was 40Hz to 20kHz (–3dB), which also seemed highly impressive at the time too.

David Listens
The NS-1000M is something of a 'Marmite' design. It's not an uncomfortable sound, but it's quite stark compared with other, lower energy loudspeakers. Some compare it to turning up the brightness on a TV set, but in truth it's more like upping the contrast. Put this speaker on the end of a silky Quad II tube power amplifier, for example, and it will sound soft, louche and warm. Downwind of a high power solid-state power amp, such as a Constellation Taurus [HFN Dec '17], and it's a different story, the presentation being forensically detailed and ultra explicit, with a brilliance of tone. In other words, the NS-1000M reflects faithfully what is higher up in the system chain. It's very transparent, in a manner you normally expect from a top electrostatic or ribbon design.

The speaker was advertised extensively for decades, the company making great play of the lightness of the beryllium drive units and excellent overall measured performance

Two other things are immediately obvious: speed and power. There's something uncanny in the way the NS-1000M captures the leading edges of notes, and how cleanly they decay. Most loudspeakers – even high quality modern ones – can slur and blur the sound somewhat. Cue up the title track on Sugar Minot's Hard Time Pressure [17 North Parade VPCD4172] and the speaker sets up a fast groove that has your feet tapping wildly. Indeed, there's a very live, 'PA' feel to the presentation – yet the NS-1000M is far more couth and refined than this. It gets its speed from the lightness of the drivers and the quietness of the cabinet, rather than simply from appearing tonally bright and forward. The result is a super-snappy sound that's hard to walk away from.

Allied to this is a sense of power and punch. The NS-1000M is genuinely able to handle a lot of watts, and becomes louder in a linear fashion – which is to say it doesn't suddenly start shouting and shrieking when you push up the volume dramatically. It's clean, has the ability to handle dynamics properly and hangs on with amazing grace.

Feed it some complex rock music, such as the Genesis track 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' from the album of the same name [Virgin CGSCDX 1] and the NS-1000M remains wonderfully composed as it digs right down into the mix, keeping everything tight and well ordered as the song becomes ever more complicated. This is one of the best speakers around on which to enjoy Phil Collins' crashing drums, the cymbals sounding beautifully metallic and possessing a lovely sheen.

Meanwhile, the bass is pacey, propulsive and tuneful, low notes starting and stopping at the same time as those further up the frequency spectrum. This speaker always offers a seat-of-the-pants listening experience, and is all the better for it.

Review of the NS-1000M from Hi-Fi Choice Loudspeakers (1977)

Muscle Music
The Yamaha NS-1000M is not perfect, of course – no speaker is. It has been criticised for its imaging, because in smallish rooms at lowish listening levels, the music doesn't 'fall out' of the speaker in the way it would when heard through a Tannoy dual concentric design or Quad electrostatic. Yet when you are able to achieve medium to high volume levels, in a larger room and with a muscular power amplifier, this speaker actually images extremely well. Cue up Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' [from Hounds of Love; EMI CDP 7 46164] and you're transported into a wondrous world of vast washes of immersive synthesisers. You can hear deep into the mix, and Kate's voice hangs ethereally in between the loudspeakers – sounding as cold as ice, and no less clear.

You really do need some power to achieve this effect, but as you're pushed further into the recorded acoustic, things truly begin to snap into focus. Indeed, properly positioned in a largish room, depth perspective is startlingly good.

Buying Secondhand
Yamaha discontinued the NS-1000M in 1997, when it sold for £4000 per pair in the UK, the company intimating that it was now 'too expensive to make'. Since then it has languished in the 'where are they now?' file. While there's a strong secondhand market for the NS-1000, most UK audio aficionados remain more interested in high-end British and American fare than the NS-1000M, making it a bargain.

Hi-Fi News Verdict
The Yamaha NS-1000M isn't everyone's cup of green tea, but those who appreciate its unique character adore it. Its transparency makes it superb across a wide range of material, though those wishing to relax at the end of the day should look elsewhere. It's a visceral-sounding speaker that gets the adrenaline flowing, whatever music you play. In the great pantheon of classic loudspeakers, it is special.

Family Values

The NS-1000 [near right] and NS-1000M were the first of Yamaha's beryllium-driver loudspeakers, but there were spin offs. In the early '90s the Japanese market offered the NS-1000X, which was effectively the NS-1000M with an improved carbon fibre woofer and gloss black finish. Other speakers in Yamaha's range were fitted with the beryllium tweeter, the smaller NS-690/II being a case in point, while the huge FX-3 shared its tweeter and midrange driver in a vast reflex-ported cabinet with a 15in bass driver. All versions are of interest to collectors, but for many the NS-1000 is the original classic. More recently, however, Yamaha launched the NS-5000 [HFN Jun '17, pictured far right]. This echoes the look of the NS-1000 but sports new Zylon drive units, Zylon being a synthetic fibre created in Japan that's said to be the world's strongest. This is then vapour-coated with a proprietary Monel alloy. Yamaha says the result has a very similar acoustic velocity to beryllium.

Yamaha NS-1000M loudspeaker Lab Report

With speakers of this vintage – even a pair in such immaculate condition as these – there is always a question mark regarding ageing effects. So when I plotted the forward frequency responses of this pair of NS-1000Ms [Graph 1, below] measured at 1m on the tweeter axis and saw the premature treble roll-off, I suspected they were not entirely as in their youth. But checking back on Yamaha's published responses, they too show a marked roll-off above 10kHz. The other notable departure from flatness, the dip at 4kHz, is tempting to ascribe to the crossover between the midrange driver and tweeter but as this occurs at a high 6kHz there may be a different cause – and it's possible that it could be eliminated or at least ameliorated by careful choice of measurement/listening axis.

Forward response shows a mild presence band dip and swift treble roll-off – as per Yamaha's specs

Despite those high-tech beryllium domes some treble modes are visible, but the cabinet is solid

Even with these departures, the response error for one speaker is a fine ±2.6dB (300Hz-20kHz), the ±4.3dB of the second reflecting its earlier treble roll-off. (Ignore the apparent low-frequency roll-off below 400Hz, which is an artefact of the measurement process.) Pair matching over the same frequency range is poor at ±2.3dB but again this can be laid at the door of the high-treble disparity. Below 10kHz it reduces to ±1.4dB. Yamaha claimed 90dB sensitivity for the NS-1000 which accords well with our measured pink noise figure of 89.7dB. Despite this it is easy to drive, in a modern context, with a minimum modulus of 4.6ohm and minimum EPDR of 2.3ohm at 70Hz. Given that the impedance peaks at 39Hz, bass extension may well be a little better than the measured 53Hz (–6dB re. 200Hz). Finally, and despite those beryllium domes, the CSD waterfall [Graph 2, above] still shows some low-level treble resonances.

• Sensitivity (SPL/1m/2.83V – Mean/IEC/Music): 89.7dB / 89.7dB / 89.6dB
• Impedance modulus: minimum & maximum (20Hz–20kHz): 4.6ohm @ 99Hz / 30.1ohm @ 39Hz
• Impedance phase: minimum & maximum (20Hz–20kHz): –55° @ 53Hz / 39° @ 27Hz
• Pair matching/Resp. error (300Hz–20kHz): ±2.3dB / ±2.6dB / ±4.3dB
• LF/HF extension (–6dB ref 300Hz/10kHz): 53Hz / 21.8kHz / 18.7kHz
• THD 100Hz/1kHz/10kHz (for 90dB SPL/1m): 0.3% / 0.1% / 0.1%
• Dimensions (HWD) / Weight (each): 675x375x328mm / 31kg

Review: David Price, Lab: Keith Howard

Source: www.hifinews.com