I just bought a pair of these second hand (excellent condition but clearly old)in Ban Chang. Wow! I think they sound flippin smashing. I wish I'd got them years ago. Clear as crystal and no boomy bass. I'm playing my fav cd's through them to get used to hearing stuff I know.



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The only excuse we have for making music in the first place is to make it differently..vis-a-vis our own difference (Glenn Gould)

I wish I had the guts to sell my NS10Ms. I loathe them. I find them hard-sounding and terminally uninspiring.

But punters like to see them there, even though I never use them - they earn their money by just sitting there! Not once has anyone asked me which monitors they're listening to - odd!

Glad you like yours - I'm in the minority with my opinion, so I accept it's probably me who has the problem, not the speakers!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

i like the NS10 for what it is technically useful for, I HATE listening to music on them.

we still have a couple of pairs , for show, but in reality, we use the AE22 instead, all the detail, all the time domain accuracy, more bottom end, and less harshness, while actually having an extended HF ....

Quote The Elf:

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I wish I had the guts to sell my NS10Ms. I loathe them. I find them hard-sounding and terminally uninspiring.

But punters like to see them there, even though I never use them - they earn their money by just sitting there! Not once has anyone asked me which monitors they're listening to - odd!

Glad you like yours - I'm in the minority with my opinion, so I accept it's probably me who has the problem, not the speakers!

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i'm w/you, elf. i popped for a pair years ago, knowing full well that they were revered for their harshness and mediocrity - the theory being, if you made a mix sound good on them, it would sound GREAT on a decent set of speakers. i haven't used them in a while, just want to sell them while the market is hot....

to the OP, all i can say is they inspire you to make more music, ignore my comment (see my earlier post on "music and the placebo effect"). inspiration is hard to come by some days ;-)

cheers,

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

I love mine!

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Mac Pro, Logic Pro, lots of software and 17 hard drives!

Quote Jonnypopisical:

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I love mine!

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+1.

To all the "bed blockers", you could always get a pair of Studiospares to act as a prop and let others have a go on the real thing y'all despise so much.

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I'm All Ears.

Mine are in the bottom of my wardrobe, They need new tweeters and woofers are not so clean.

I might get around to selling them one day

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Madman_Greg

This is from a thread of a few months ago :

Quote MadManDan:

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Quote SafeandSound123:

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"If it sounds good on Yamaha NS10's it'll sound good on anything"......Paraphrased as.... "If it sounds good on anything it will sound good on Yamaha NS10's" ........ Thus entering the realms loosely defined as.. total and utter nonsense. EDIT : and then I thought the thread would bear some resemblance to it's title.

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Actually it's not nonsense. That paraphrase is NOT true.

NS10's came into their own long before every kid with a cracked copy of ableton live claimed to be an "engineer", and the internet let rumors spread rampant.

NS10's became popular because

A. The "woofers" , although small, were very adept at letting the engineer hear low-mid mud. If the 100-300 hz range was too busy or had conflicts between instruments, these things would pop right out at you. Great for cleaning up the mix.

B. Said woofers posessed a very fast transient response, letting you hear drums' attacks very well. Other monitors would miss that.

C. These were NOT amazing sounding monitors. Their low end, though actually pretty good for their size, was limited. The hi's could be brittle. But, if you heard it in the NS10, it really WAS there.

While it may be true that certain studio owners bought into having NS10s without understanding these reasons, I've tracked, mixed, or assisted on many a hit record in which the primary near-field used was the NS10. These mixes sound great played all around, so it is not just hype.

Rant over.

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Gear list: If you can't find it, grind it

Quote ken long:

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To all the "bed blockers", you could always get a pair of Studiospares to act as a prop and let others have a go on the real thing y'all despise so much.

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It has crossed my mind on more than one occasion!!

Love 'em or hate 'em, they are iconic. Between those and the name 'Neumann' on a couple of my mic's I have direct evidence that that they are part of the reason for clients booking with me. NS10s must be the ultimate 'he knows what he's doing' studio prop!

I have done mixes on NS10s many times. I went from Tannoy Stratfords, to Oxfords to NS10Ms when the Oxfords finally gave up the ghost. The Stratfords were always hard-sounding speakers to my ears, but the NS10s were a new experience entirely. I just couldn't get excited by the mix - no thundering drums or throbbing bass. I recall one occasion when a client warned me that I'd muted the Taurus bass pedals - I hadn't!

I really did persevere with them for around 18 months until I felt the need to go out and buy some more Tannoys – 66s for the 5.1 circle and 8Ds for main stereo monitoring. It was like coming back home. Finally I felt like bopping around the control room again.

Since then I’ve come to rely on headphones for pretty much 95% of the mixing task, so even the 8Ds sit idle much of the time. But when I want to hit a client between the eyes they do their job. But not once has anyone asked me which of my speakers they’re listening to!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

NS10 thread have a certain comforting regularity of occurrence, don't they?

The definitive statement on the issue (also contains link to superb Newell et al paper):
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/yamahans10.htm

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madtheory creations
Synths and pianos for Kontakt

Quote Tomás Mulcahy:

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NS10 thread have a certain comforting regularity of occurrence, don't they?

The definitive statement on the issue (also contains link to superb Newell et al paper):
<a href="/sos/sep08/articles/yamahans10.htm" target="_blank">http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/yamahans10.htm</a>

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Thanks Tomás. Saved me posting the link.

Phil

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Freelance audio product designer/writer
www.philward.biz

Out of interest, what headphones do you use when mixing?

AKG K701. Love 'em.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Sennheisser HD600s. love 'em, too (but hate their fragility to impulse noise , can't leave them plugged in w/o fear of another $300 repair).

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

Sennheiser HD650s - lovely jubbly!


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

AKG K702 and Sony MDR 7509HD

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

HD650s. About to trial the new Sony model too (can't remember the model number... the new 7509)

Sennheiser HD650 and Beyer DT150 for that bottom end goodness

I've never been able to mix well on NS10s (well, mine are actually NS615s - Yamaha's "domestic" slightly repackaged equivalent) although, somewhat bizarrely, I like the sound of them.

But they look good - and right - above the meter bridge in the big studio, where they've been delegated to live alongside the Auratones and Genelecs. They're nice to have so I can refer to them once in a while, but I just can't get good mixes if I use them as my main monitor.

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"We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chambers..." But no-one answered, so we went to the pub instead.

Edited by Phil Reynolds (04/01/13 03:16 AM)

AKG 701s ... Lovely-Jubbly. Indeedy!

Re: NS10s, I've found them sensitive to the amps driving them and the leads they're connected with. There is little or no HiFi "euphony" so show up any deficiencies, so that that if bad, it makes NS10s unlistenable to. And if good, they're fab. My impressions below take into account different rooms and known music.
Worst sounding NS10s were with a sick Carver, next worse powered by a couple of Quads (a 405 and a rack-mount one) with long cables (amp at the rear of big mixing rooms rather than amp by speakers). All the other NS10s seemed to be just a bit thin and grainy and were the seemingly ubiquitous NS10/Quad combos ... not a happy marriage IMHO ...
And the best-sounding ones were powered by a Bryston, a Carver, and even by a Rotel (I think) tuner-amp. All had short leads. The Rotel shot my preconceptions to bits!

I wouldn't mind a good NS10 system.

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PA stuff on FB


Edited by Guy Johnson (04/01/13 11:04 AM)

I was going to make a post about this a few months ago but someone's done it for me :-)

A friend got a set of NS-10M's at a boot fair for £50 and brought them round for me to have a look at them, he's not into production or anything but knows they are popular in the studios and what have you.

I was dying to try them out and I have to say I was impressed or more like shocked.
I really liked them. I didn't think they sound bad or harsh for that matter.
Liked the mids and although not a lot of it the low end rolled off nicely and didn't interfere with the room much .

But then again I didn't see what was so amazing about them either, I just thought they were a ok set of speakers no more no less.

I wasn't able to work on them though, only listen to commercial CD's and vinyl records.

Oh yea they look brilliant too

Certainly prefer them over my Mackie HR-624 mk1's but I guess this could be cos I'm more used to listening on hi-fi type speakers.
So much so I got rid or the 624's for...



Now then NS-1000's now there's something very tasty I'd love... Any way lol

Edited by vinyl_junkie (07/01/13 08:10 PM)

Never mind all that, what's the Lego figure?

Quote nathanscribe:

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Never mind all that, what's the Lego figure?

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Hahah this guy lol



Oh lord how sad am I...goes back into hole