Yamaha Ns344 and Ns10s

R

RFR

Well-known member
I've been using Ns10s for years, and loving them. Been on the lookout for a set of Ns344s for a while, but unwilling to get them sight unseen, as on ebay.

There is sparse info on the web. A litle bit on the slutz forum and a really old thread here.

I've heard mention of it being a big brother to the Ns10, and it being nothing like the ns10.
Some audiophiles seem to love them.

For myself I was hoping for a midfield complimentary speaker to the ns10 s.

well, I found a pair locally and was the only caller after a week of being listed.
Got them for the right price, they are real clean, and sound great! I'm very impressed.

They are a 3 way system with a 10 inch woofer, a mid and old style ns10 tweeters. The rounded grill tissue paper version.

They are a bit bright with that sound that inspired the tissue paper on old ns10s. They do have controls to boost and cut the mids and highs. Rolling off some of the top end and boosting the mids gave me (to my ears )a very flat speaker. The bass is very good and tight without any of that "krk style" hyped bass.

I find the transient response similar to the ns10s, and they are very detailed and clear.

This impression is after spending a day listening to them and switching back and forth through a Bryston 3b.

I'm very pleased and they will make a very good midfield addition to the ns10s.
 
Last edited:
Good info and congrats! I was an NS-10 fan for years, never had any experience with the NS-344. I had a pair of NS-10M Studio... toned down tweeter. Easier on the ears with high frequency.
 
Thanks Beck
The ns10s are very mid forward and the old ones very bright in a harsh way. I've spent most of my time on the Ms with the toned down tweets. It took a long time to get to learn them, but the 344s only a day.
They retain what I like about the 10s but are fuller and have the bottom end that little guys lack. They still have that ruthless, "I'm going to show the flaws in your mix" personality. But in a more pleasing high-fi way, if that makes any sense. They remind me a lot of my old jbl 4311s with some of that ns10 personality.
Hard to describe, but I like them.
 
RFR said:
They still have that ruthless, "I'm going to show the flaws in your mix" personality. But in a more pleasing high-fi way, if that makes any sense.
Click to expand...

Yes, makes perfect sense and that's why I liked the NS-10s. I was exposed to the older ones with the harsher tweeters because they were everywhere, I just ended up buying the next generation with the smoother sounding tweeter for my own studio. I liked the older ones nonetheless. Seems people either loved them or hated them, but IMO those who hated them didn't get the purpose. In my experience if you could get something to sound great on the NS-10 it sounded great on everything. I don't have my old NS-10s anymore.

I bought the Yorkville YSM1i monitors years ago and they are much the same to me but with more bass. I started using the Yorkies more and then a friend made an offer on my NS-10s that I could not refuse. He really really wanted them! So now he has them. I'm very happy with the Yorkies, but that's due in large part because I was accustomed to the whole point of working with the NS-10s... they don't flatter your music and make it sound better than it is, and that's what we want in a studio reference monitor.
 
So the yorkies pretty much sound like the 10m but with more bass? I got it right?

When i auditioned the 344s the guy had vInyl. I brought a cd but he didnt even have a cd player, just a preamp, power amp and a turntable. Real old school. They sounded stellar.
I think the old tweets were purposely designed to put out more treble to crispen up the warmth of vinyl. Just a theory.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top