$400 for a pair of Yamaha NS-10s... yay or nay?

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policenauts03

New member
Hey all, I found what seems to be a pretty good deal on a pair of good condition Yamaha NS-10s. I've seen them sell on eBay for anywhere from $450-$650, and I've been itching for a pair of studio monitors. These would be my first monitors, and I've heard mixed things. Should I pull the trigger? Thanks!
 
For the money, you can get something MUCH better......... unless you're already used to their um, "sonic characteristic", NS-10s are a horrible choice as a first pair of monitors, IMO.
 
The only reason I would buy those is for looks, I can't believe these things are in pro studios makes me chuckle every time I see a pro studio on tv with these things.
 
Buy a decent set of powered monitors and some white paint and make 'em look "pro". :)

Seriously...it's probably half the reason most studios have them, they are recognizable. The deal is that they were made to be a pretty standard sounding hi-fi speaker (in their day) and when studios started picking them up they came out with the "M" version which were made to lay on their side for "pro" use. I guess their popularity exploded when Bob Clearmountain's place was shown in a MIX article and the NS10's were up.

But they were intended to be bookshelf speakers really. Doesn't mean you can't use them but...if you're not already used to them (the other half of the reason studios have them) then I would shy away.

Find me one pair of speakers at Best Buy, Wal Mart or Circuit City that actually sound like NS10's and I'll buy you a pair of NS10's. :) KRK RP5's would suit you better and cost $100 less.

War
 
The Yamaha MSP5's or MSP3's would be a very nice pair for not much money. The 3's lack bass, but in a blind shoot out done by Future Music magazine they came out tops for accuracy in the budget range. The 5's also did extremely well for the same reason in the midpriced bracket.
 
NS10 was regarded as the standard monitor in the audio engineers community. Unfortunately Yamaha stopped producing it already because the pulp that being used to make the cone has already extinct. If i'm a US resident I'll bid it right away.
 
It was the "Studio" version of the NS10M's that were designed for horizontal placement.

A lot of people still use NS10M's but you've got to know what you're getting into. It's very easy - and not uncommon - to blow the tweeters on them. And then you have to find and pay for replacements. It's a good idea to run a fast fuse on the positive cable to lessen the chance of blowing a tweeter.

Another thing to figure in is the amplifier. NS10M's in pro studios are typically powered by pricey amps such as Brystons. There's no use in getting a pair of NS10M and then trying to run them with a cheap amp - you won't get the same results. Also NS10M's are rarely used as the only reference monitor in better studios.

Another alternative are the Tannoy PBM 6.5II's. These came about as close as anything to being a viable replacement for NS10M's, but then active monitors got more popular. You can still find 6.5II's on Ebay for around $200. They pair nicely with something like a Crown D-75, which runs about $150 or so.

By the time you get into a pair of NS10M's and a half-decent amp, you're still going to be up around $1K. And by then you're into the range of active monitors such as the Dynaudio BM5A's, KRK V8's - which I think are an overall better choice than the NS10M's - especially if you're only going to have one pair of monitors.
 
NS10 fill-ins

another near NS10, may be the JBL Control 5.
extreemly few articles on these speakers, but over at Gearslutz Han and someone mentioned liking them and sounding close to the NS10 (over exaggerated mid freqs)...

i have a pair of JBL, i had sold but then the guy didn't want 'em.
these even have the White cones!! Blue labels= matched set.

i can vouche their mid-freq optimized...ear bleed, imo.

oh well so now i have 6 sets of speakers around the house! :eek:
 
Kokhon you're only slightly right the ns10 is not the standard in the industry in fact a lot of guys just used them as reference monitors. Any monitor that you have to put tissue paper over the tweets shouldn't be considered a studio standard.
 
COOLCAT said:
another near NS10, may be the JBL Control 5.
extreemly few articles on these speakers, but over at Gearslutz Han and someone mentioned liking them and sounding close to the NS10 (over exaggerated mid freqs)...

i have a pair of JBL, i had sold but then the guy didn't want 'em.
these even have the White cones!! Blue labels= matched set.

i can vouche their mid-freq optimized...ear bleed, imo.

oh well so now i have 6 sets of speakers around the house! :eek:
Click to expand...

The Control 5 was popular in the eighties but they sound very different from the NS10. A friend of mine had a studio and mixed everything on the Control 5.

Actually the Control 5 sounds a lot better than the NS10, it has a decent low end, the NS10 doesn't produce much below 80hz.

I'm very happy with a pair of IMF Compact Monitor 2 from the early eighties which I've bought for only € 80 or so (don't remember very well since I have nine pair of IMF monitors now)

I still have a pair of NS10's on the meter bridge (with a sub), but hardly use them.
 
JBL Control 5

your threads are the most info i've seen on these mysterious monitors?
thanks Han.

your "other" post, 2003 on gearslutz, with you and imacgreg..mentioned C5 as "decent". imacgreg mentioned NS10 like? i've never heard the NS10.

i must of searched 100 web pages...
even the retailers review threads were empty! :eek:

popular in the 1980's you say....thats 25years of Control 5's at least!
JBL still sells them so somebody must be buying them???

Mine are the "plus" hence the Blue Label instead of Orange label, which is the White cones instead of the Black...a matched pair per JBL...the Plus series..
probably $650 new! i couldn't sell 'em for $225pair ..is my inderstanding.

and my friend turned 'em down at $175!! no pun intended. :)

oh well i traded an old kids drumbell kit for them..no cash involved.
 
kinda a random thought from me but i picked up a MINT pair of JBL tlx121's while dumpster diving. they appear to be consumerish speakers, but take off ye olde grill and they look stellar. there's my "b" speakers! with hyped lows and highs, too. and I can crank the hell out of them so clients are all like... fuk yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 
UK company studiospares make the 'new NS-10s'

Basically they copied the design and are selling it much cheaper...anyone know anything about these, they're called the SN-10
 
Nice topic! Does anyone know if there has changed a lot in the field of monitors in the last 9 years? I'm writing 2013 and am in search of monitors...
 
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