I purchased these speakers on sale for 179 canadian in which is about 100 american. It turns that they cannot handle what my amp puts out with the music I listen to. They over all have a good response for high end due to the aluminum tweeter and the mid range is really nice. Yet the 8 inch driver is lacking the durability that I desired. Considering I listen to alot of music containing bass. Butt over all a good speaker for home theater but not one for stereo. So if you have a small room and don't need to have a speaker two pound it is a good buy. Remember that Yamaha has good speakers for stereo but don't let sales try to tell you it is Hi Fi cause of the clarity they produce. That changes in your environment. They are decieving!!

custom stickers | print stickers | business printing | printing company

A lot of people confuse that NS A636s with the NS A637s. I'm the proud owner of a genuine pair of the NS A637s. The best way to tell is by the woofer. The NS-a636 have a rippled cone woofer. The higher end NS a637 have a much better woofer. This is my experience as an audiophile. First off, a lot of people keep confusing these speakers for bookshelf speakers. Bookshelf speakers are designed to be set close to the listener. These speakers were designed for a 2.0 home theater setup. They definitely will not sound good being right by them. Spread them out and set them on stands. Next, get a stereo receiver that has some real power on tap. These use a sealed cabinet design that when equalized, will outperform a bass reflex design in terms of bass quality. For this, find a equalizer. Use a dedicated hardware equalizer hooked up to the receiver. Use that along with your receiver's tone controls. Use the equalizer to drop the mid bass down and turn the sub bass up. Then start increasing the bass knob. Trust me, these speakers do not lack bass, your receiver just isn't pushing enough to them. They can easily be felt. Do the same with the treble. Increase the treble (16KHz) on the equalizer). Then lower the mid treble (around 6KHz) to remove the hiss sound. Turn up the treble tone control on your receiver slowly to get the right amount. Those furo-fluid cooled tweeters can handle it. I crease both 400Hz and 2KHz. Decrease 1KHz. These speakers will surprise you. Turn them up slowly (they only have 8' woofers) They should get pretty loud with plenty of bass (enough to anger neighbors). It should be deep, punchy, and thunderous. The treble should be very pure. The midrange should sound very transient. I have yet to hear speakers sound this good at this size (especially without sounding boxy at all).

There a couple weaknesses. The wood used to make the cabinets is not ageing well. I'm very careful with them. Another is the dust caps. I guess it's not a weakness when you think of the design. The dust caps on both the woofers and midrange drivers are designed to resonate (this allows the transient response these speakers are capable of). Thus they are very soft in easily pressed in. This will completely throw these speakers out of balance. To fix the dust caps, get scotch tap (not duck tape) and touch the tape to the dust caps. Gently pull it off. The dust caps should come right out back to their normal shape (time is a factor here). They still might not sound the same. Turn them up for a couple hours. They should come back.

I bought these speakers with the intent to flip them ($22.50 at a thrift store). On a whim, I decided to plug them up and see how they sounded in comparison to my Bose 201 series IV speakers, which I had been using as my monitors. Being a producer, I'm looking for something very accurate that stays intelligible at high volume. I plugged these in on the B side of my receiver, and instantly knew that these little (not so little, actually... they're really freaking big, taking up 75% of my desk) things blew the 201's out of the water. Being a sealed cabinet, the bass is tight and the overall volume is increased, entirely without distortion. Going from two-way to three-way speakers added some resilience in the mids and highs, and they were comparable in accuracy to an extremely high end pair of professional studio monitors. Now if you plan to use these as an every day sound system, I would recommend these quite a bit less. They aren't particularly bassy speakers, and it seems that that's the main complaint for these on the average listeners' reviews. At close range, though, these speakers are absolutely amazing for monitoring.

mids and highs

lows with a weak receiver

These speakers are incredible for the price (I got them on sale $50). The mids and highs sound incredible. The bass isn't that great with a weak receiver. I just upgraded to a Yamaha receiver, and now they sound incredible. They can't handle a lot of power (more than 60-70 Watts or so with a lot of bass), but they are loud at that level with 91 dB sensitivity. The only real downside is that they're frequency response is only 70 Hz on up. Even though, there's plenty of bass with just these speakers (without a sub). It seems that Yamaha is discontinuing this line, which is a shame. I've been looking for the NS-A837s because they can hit a bit lower.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity RS2000.2, Yamaha NS-A638

I purchased a pair of the old 635s more than 6 years ago and have had nothing bad to say about them. They are the functional ancestor of the 636s and 637s, and are cosmetically the same. The only difference being the following: the 635s were unshielded, the 636s are shielded (same power rating as the 635s), and the 637s have a higher minimum amp rating and are shielded. These speakers are given a bad time by many simply because they are inexpensive (notice I didn't say cheap). They are well built, heavy, and give decent sound! I recently upgraded all of my system to Infinity speakers and have now passed these on to my parents. For the price, they cannot be faulted. The highs and mids are exceptional, and the bass is respectable. When I first purchased these, I had inherited a set of no-name speakers from a roommate that had failed to pay his bills. Those old 70s scandinavian jobs he left were much more respectable in the bass department, but the mids and highs of the Yamahas won them a place as my main fronts. If you are just starting out, don't pay attnetion to anyone who tells you these stink. Take a listen for yourself. If you like them, you have just saved a ton of greenbacks (or are they whitebacks now?).
This rating system is difficult with products such as this. Perhaps Audioreview should break products down into various categories such as entry level, mid level, and high end. That way, the various ratings would have more meaning. As an entry level product, these speakers deserve a solid 5. If you compare them to mid level speakers, they get a 3. For the value then, a solid 4 is right on the money!

Good mids and highs

Bass only OK

These arent the best speakers in the world but they may very well be the best $100 speakers I have ever heard. If you want solid performance at a very low price these may be your best bet. They beat out speakers that cost 2 or 3 times as much.

Good looks, decent sound

A little bit bassy and probably would do better if ported

First, I paid $20.00 for a pair of Yamaha NS-A637 speakers believe it or not.

I hooked them up to the back end of my home theater system with some really decent Sony speakers on the front end.

I found that the Yamaha's have a good sound, however, they are a little bassy even when elevated off the floor. I have them mounted at listener ear level. To improve the electronic transmission, I used 16 gauge wire and the helped significantly over the 24 gauge I did have.

Our 'acid test' of these speakers was Bach, Beethoven's 5th, and the movie U571. Bach and Beethoven came out clean and crisp. The U-571 was awesome, nothing less than awesome. You got the listening impression the depth charges were happening right next to you (not to mention the cannon fight on the movie Cut Throat Island was anything less stirring).

These speaker might do better ported and that is my next agenda with them.

Overall, while not exactly Bose 301's or the older Altec Lansing Voice of the theaters -- I would rate these speakers as really decent .... 6.5 to 7 on a scale of 10.
Maybe I'm just partial because I paid very little money for them. But, I think the $175.00 a pair price tag is not unreasonable.

I purchased these speakers on sale for 179 canadian in which is about 100 american. It turns that they cannot handle what my amp puts out with the music I listen to. They over all have a good response for high end due to the aluminum tweeter and the mid range is really nice. Yet the 8 inch driver is lacking the durability that I desired. Considering I listen to alot of music containing bass. Butt over all a good speaker for home theater but not one for stereo. So if you have a small room and don't need to have a speaker two pound it is a good buy. Remember that Yamaha has good speakers for stereo but don't let sales try to tell you it is Hi Fi cause of the clarity they produce. That changes in your environment. They are decieving!!

GOOD PRICE,SOUND,LOOKS,PRICE,SOUND

NONE IF YOU PUT THEM WITH THE RIGHT SYSTEM

I don't care what you read from others about these speakers they are very good for the price. I would say a good front speaker for surround sound thou it's not much on bass that's why you have a sub. I am very happy with these great mid and highs and moderate lows. Solid construction and look good. If you have a chance to get a pair of these do it , just remember if you have a high power system and can select speaker size set it to small, they sound better.

P.S. Get a pair of speaker stand to bring it up to your listening area

Similar Products Used:

BOSE 301, AR-17

Yamaha

None

I have picked out every thing for my home theater system and these were the perfect rear surrounds for my setup. They are fantastic for movies and music. The extra bass when watching movies really makes the difference. They are crystal clear and inexpensive. As with any good speakers, a good strong receiver and the right positioning are a must to get the sound you want.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Bose, Aiwa, Infinity, Celestion, Jenson, Pioneer, KLH