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The Yamaha NS-2000 speaker system is definitely a high-end product. It costs $2,900 per pair, and combines a greatly improved form of the beryllium dome midrange and tweeter technology which Yamaha pioneered in the NS-1000 with a true all-carbon-fiber woofer cone. These drivers are placed in the most solidly built enclosure that I have ever encountered in a box speaker. Each unit weighs 103 pounds, although it measures only 17 5/8 x 29 5/8 x 15 7/8 inches.
The main change in the new beryllium drivers is greatly improved dispersion. The 13-inch carbon-fiber woofer is made of formed sheets to allow Yamaha to avoid any blend of the carbon and other materials, and this woofer is said to have very similar sound propagation properties to the beryllium 31 inch midrange dome and 1-3/16-inch tweeter. All drivers have comparatively high flux and seem to be very well made, indeed.
Careful attention is paid to minimize cabinet and mounting diffraction effects. The crossover is a fairly complex 12 dB/octave system, operating at nominal frequencies of 500 Hz and 6 kHz, and uses good components. Separate level adjustments are provided for the midrange and tweeter.
The cabinet finish is superb, as well as being non-resonant. The speaker does, however, need a custom-made stand to raise its tweeter to ear height.
Suitable speaker stands are available from the Chicago Speaker Stand Co. ( 4701 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60631) for $75 and raise the units 8 inches off the ground. The speaker connections are the clip-in types.
The sound of the speaker is highly dependent on adjustment of the midrange and treble controls. I found it excessively bright until the treble control was set below 10 o'clock and the midrange control below 11 o'clock. It is also essential to keep each speaker about 18 inches from the rear wall and 24 inches from either side wall to get the flattest response in most rooms, as well as to use stands to raise the speaker so the tweeter is ear height.
Keeping the backs parallel to the wall seems to provide better imaging and sound-stage depth than a toed-in (drivers pointed toward the listening position) placement.
As is the case with most acoustic suspension designs, the NS-2000 provides its best bass response and control with the high damping factor and low impedance drive capability of the better transistor amps. For example, the Robertson Forty Ten and Sixty Ten did notably better in controlling the bass than the conrad-johnson Premier Four or Audio Research D-160B. Even with such amplifiers, there is limited deep bass below 50 Hz. The mid- and upper-bass, however, is excellent. The NS-2000 is fast, flat, detailed, and well controlled to any power level a sane listener could desire. This is not an organ buff's speaker, but no drummer, pianist or bass player is likely to criticize its performance. This is saying quite a bit, even given the demanding competition in the NS-2000's price range.
The midrange is equally clean, but not as flat, and there are some slight sonic problems around the crossover frequency of 500 Hz. The NS-2000 lacks its usual coherence at this point.
There also is a slight upward tilt in the upper midrange which cannot be eliminated by the midrange or treble controls. The speaker's specifications indicate that this is around 2 kHz, but it sounds slightly higher. The blend between midrange and tweeter is excellent, and considerably better than in most high-end speakers.
The NS-2000s have a musically natural midrange and treble, with a slight tinge of brightness. This is not noticeable on good, well-balanced recordings-in fact, it helps create the impression of "life," that one is sitting near the performance. It can, however, be slightly hard when the material is bright or miked too close. The upper strings and female voice can be particularly revealing in this regard.
The NS-2000s are not the ideal speakers for a phono cartridge with a rising high end or for hard transistor electronics. A flat or slightly downward sloping cartridge is preferable. The speed and detail of the Yamaha NS 2000s make them a good match with tube electronics or those transistor electronics which are detailed and musical, rather than those which are aggressive and bright.
They worked very well with the new Hafler and PS Audio equipment and the "softer" tube electronics-such as the conrad-johnson or earlier Audio Research products. You may, therefore, have to make some minor tradeoffs between the merits of transistors for the bass and tubes for the midrange and treble.
Imaging and sound-stage depth are very good, but not excellent. The NS 2000s offer a wide, stable sound stage, good dispersion over a wide range of listening positions, and considerable depth. They do not, however, match the ability of the Quad ESL-63s or Thiel CS-3s to both place an instrument in a precise and stable manner and then give it the harmonic detail or air that make it sound natural.
The Yamaha NS-2000s do, however, have outstanding dynamics and power handling, which helps them provide very good sound with piano and percussive instruments. They outperform the Quads and Thiels in this respect, although the difference between them and the Thiels is limited. Further, the Yamahas are much less sensitive than the Quads and other dipole speakers to rear wall conditions, and this helps eliminate bass anomalies and center-fill problems.
Whether they are the best pair of near-$3,000 speakers in the world is impossible to answer. They are a definite design success, and a considerable advance over the NS-1000M, which was the first speaker to prove to me that Japan could also make great loudspeakers. The NS-2000s clearly merit, if not demand, excellent high end components.
Much will depend on your preferred listening position and style. I would describe these speakers as putting you close to the music in a modern hall: They are accurate, detailed, and musically natural, with good staging and the ability to disappear behind the music.
Put it this way: They are good enough, even at their high price, to be worth extended auditioning with the proper matching components. I even felt it was well worth lugging 206 pounds of speakers into my living room. A very good listen!
-Anthony H. Cordesman
(Audio magazine, Sept. 1984)
Also see: Yamaha NS-1000 Loudspeaker System (Jan. 1979)
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