SOLD ELSEWHERE: Yamaha NS-1 (yes, NS-1) Classics bookshelf speaker pair

coffeemachinist · November 2, 2023

Further Information:

Something for the real Yamaha connoisseurs.

These are the elusive NS-1 speakers, released in Japan in 1988 as a counterpoint to the trend of cheap, flimsy, ported and boomy two way speakers that were becoming popular during the rise of CDs. This speaker embodies everything that Yamaha values in their approach to Natural Sound and was released as a celebration of that history, widely believed to cost more to make than they ever sold for. They are just gorgeous in their simplicity of design and beauty of the raw materials. The drivers are high end and bordering on esoteric - AlNiCo magnet and cast frame woofer with a mica loaded polypropylene cone, and doped pure cotton tweeter diaphragm with a natural felt surround. How cool. Traditional British sensibility meets Japanese refinement.

Imported from Japan a few years ago, they are in pristine condition and will pass the fussiest inspection. No tears or flaws in the suspensions or cones, everything is as it should be. These would have to be the nicest pair on offer anywhere and are a rare speaker to say the least. Internally the crossover capacitors have been upgraded with Dayton 1% film caps. Not on a whim - the original electrolytics had drifted way out of spec. I have retained them inside the speakers to preserve originality, wiring in the new ones around them.

Here’s Yamaha’s entry from their product hall of fame page - https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/contents/audio_visual/hifi/hifi-history/speaker/index.html

Appearing in 1988 in the midst of the popular price speaker competition showing signs of turning into a war of attrition in the Japanese market, the NS-1 Classic had nothing, even in terms of its technical and design elements, to do with preceding Yamaha speakers. But in appearance there was no mistaking that it was a Yamaha HiFi bookshelf speaker and you could even go so far as to call it a reincarnation of the old NS-690 series. No longer using high-tech materials, it had a simple design featuring a colorless mica hybrid PP cone woofer and a soft dome tweeter made of undyed cotton treated with a minimal amount of phenol forming resin. With an aluminum-nickel magnetic circuit it is clear that it was strongly intended as a return to speaker building basics, and that intention was restated equally in its bare tweeter dome and defenselessly affixed white felt. The six-sided real birch wood cabinet featured a full urethane finish on all sides, and it retailed for 59,500 yen per unit at the time of its release. Knowing how good it was from the point of view of modern values, that price seems surprisingly reasonable, but for customers of the day it was no doubt a difficult choice to have to select between a popular price speaker that was respectable because it visibly weighed 30kg and a unit like this that was not even a third of that. The price of the NS-1 Classic went up to 65,000 yen per unit in 1993, but it continued to be produced for twelve years until 1999, slowly and steadily gaining supporters. The technology of the A-PMD (Advanced Polymer-injected Mica Diaphragm) unit continues to be used in Yamaha speakers.

Glenross · November 2, 2023

Absolute stunners. GLWTS.

Robertoh · November 3, 2023

Oh gosh. Exquisite looking. Assume they sound very nice as well! (From an NS-670 owner)

Perhaps Yammie's very Japanese artisan response to the LS3/5A crowd, Harbeth, Rogers, etc?

GLWTS!

Edited November 3, 2023 by Robertoh

coffeemachinist · November 3, 2023

They do indeed sound great, and are voiced similarly to the LS3/5a 'BBC dip', but having a larger woofer and enclosure volume definitely dig deeper on the low end.

They are a tad zingy in the treble with the HF attenuators at midpoint, but with a mild dip are just right I find. Yamaha were definitely looking back fondly and giving a nod to Rogers, Stirling, Harbeth, Spendor et al with these but put their own spin on refining the drivers. I would say the tweeter is better by a large margin than anything KEF or Celestion produced in the 70s.

Edited November 3, 2023 by coffeemachinist