« NOT A NS10 M »

Great for the new style monitor but not an NS10M. No comparison. They are a bit more colored and a bit more unreal on the low end. They have a great rating and some great reviews but for the money why would you not get a more realistic speaker. Decide if your looking to impress or mix. If you want to mix use the real old NS10M over buying these. If you looking to get more movement down at the 50hz frequency, these will do. When you are use to flat monitors these won't suit your needs as they have a compressed enhanced sound. I use to own a pair of KRK'S that did the same thing. When you are mixing loud and you have set them up as near field monitors and your only monitors they sound pretty damn good. Most all monitors do if you have nothing to compare them to. But we have contacts and they bring us monitors to try all the time and we put them to the test every time. The Yamaha's are good sounding monitors if you are use to a more smooth low end whereby the lower frequencies like 100hz to 140hz sound somewhat compressed and really smooth. I am use to more flat monitors that are a bit more real and unprocessed sounding so when I first heard these it surprised me as they were smooth and normally Yamaha monitors are nothing close to smooth. They have a harsh sound at about 3K and that is why many producers in the past would place tissue paper over the tweeters to cut down on ear fatigue during a mix down or even a long day session. I use to do that all the time. But upon hearing these I noticed a great deal of enhancement. I am not saying they are bad monitors I am just stating that Yamaha has a reputation for really flat sounding almost dead sounding monitors. With this set it threw me off as it was a bit more like the Mackies or the KRK speakers. I was not ready for that from Yamaha so it did not suit my needs for mixing. Much like a new JBL monitor it seemed that it was too smooth for my own good. I

SOUNDS

Good stereo imaging.

A bit cautious on the effects mixing. When effects mixing on smoother sounding monitors you have to be very careful with your effects especially reverbs. Snare reverbs were too smooth for my liking as was the vocals. I like the fact that they provide a more comfortable listening experience but for me that can be a bit deceiving. My ears are more trained for the high boost that a classic NS10m provides which makes you work really hard and long on the midrange tones of your mix. It also makes you work harder on your vocal compression and you can hear any fluctuation in the vocal tracks and in the snare tracks. These speakers provide a good listening experience but not as flat for my liking as I would like out of a speaker. I will stay with the old NS10M and a good pair of JBL's and even the Mackie h824s which to me are more like a slightly enhanced NS10m more than any other speaker. Buy a pair of Mackie H824 and you will like them more.

OVERALL OPINION

I think I like the bump of these but not the unrealistic sound of any of the new Yamahas. I just don't trust their representation. If I am buying Yamaha, again I would just buy the NS10m's.