Lack of compression. I had never really heard dynamic range until these. Imaging. You can hear which fingers are plucking which strings. The speakers just vanish from the room. Drums. The only thing I've heard which can do a convincing impression of a snare drum.

Bass. After a year I still can't put my finger on the bass-light nature of these things. They can be convincing sub-woofers though (?)

A complete one-off, with more weaknesses than people tend to admit. There are very few generally known 'iconic' speakers. The NS-1000's have attained a cult status for some very good reasons, and some, I feel, fairly bad ones. Let's start with the bad. I first heard these things belting out 'Dark Side...' way back in the late 70's, and never forgot the experience. They were so far ahead of there time then that there was no comparison anywhere. I wanted them then, but it took 25 yrs to finally acheive a pair, and if it wasn't for eBay I'd still have that yearning! I've only got a NAD amp and CD player, which I'm sure don't do the 1000's justice, but initially I was dissapointed. Anyone hearing them for the first time will think 'Where's the bass?' I did, and all of my friends (who expressed a preference!) concurred. OK so perhaps a valve amp might be the answer, but I'm sure that the cramped nature of the innards plays its part. Open them up and you realise that the boxes are the minimum possible size. It's busy in there, stuffed with crossovers, partitions, wadding and drive units (the 12" bass is actually on a fairly flimsy chassis). As infinite baffle units, there is no substitute for cubic inches. The sound is very, very 'dry'. A question that I ask a lot is whether that is what the original actually sounds like, and if our expectation of bass has been hyped to the point where we ask a lot more bass thatn there is in real life. Don't know the answer, but I always have the control up a couple of notches on my amp. All this aside, a solo double bass will sound as if it's in the room with you, so I think my problem is me, not the speakers. Onward... Good points. Everything else. There is nothing out there that comes near being able to reproduce the scale of a piece of work like these. If the sound requires a sudden 20dB peak, that's exactly what you get. Some samll speakers can sound good at low volumes, but ask them for 100dBA and they will collapse in floods of tears. I've had 112 out of my NS-1000's. Try that with your multi-media satellites! This is really noticeable on voices which have a huge dynamic range, and also where they turn the volume up in TV ad breaks. Imaging is another strength. I've never felt the slightest need to fit a centre speaker for DVD's, and probably never will. The image is THAT good. Some reviews have pointed at a shrillness in the mid and treble. I don't really see it, it's just another facet or reality not living up to expectations. But these are not hi-fi speaers. They're monitors, which can detract to a large degree from the overall musical experience. They give a warts'n'all rendition of whatever they're fed with, and you lose the involvement with the performance.

IMAGING as well! Extremely precise, neutral, can play very loud without compression, although not very sensitive, they sound exactly the same loud or at low volumes. I use them with my Treshold S150 main amp.

Low end too dry for "hifi" due to overdamped bass. The Yamaha´s can be very arrogant to you. Bad recordings, house music or Madonna´s vocoder sound really awfull. They let you hear too well what a crap most new music is. The speakers let you sit on the producers chair. They can sound too cool and technical for some people. I solved this problem with an Acoustic Research pre-amp and the Monster Interlink 400.

Believe it or not, IT´s ALL TRUE !!! Listening to the NS1000´s make you think: what have speaker manufacturers been doing the last 25 years? Probably busy with marketing, and WAF (wife acceptance factor). Now there is this new JMLab High End speaker on the market, with this new exotic material for the 1" dome tweeter: it´s the same material the Yamaha´s big domes are made of, 25 years ago. Anyway, for description of the sound please read the other reviews, I can only add that there really isn´t that much bass. This is because it is a closed box system and probably quite well damped (Q around 0,5). Remember it was made for very precise listening (studio monitoring), not for standing out of the rest of the speakers in a shop. This kind of bass is actually perfect for those who have a living room with concrete walls and floors where other speakers easily sound boomy. These are true high end speakers. Don´t be fooled by the attenuators, small terminals and grills or other old-fashioned "hifi-rack" looks.

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Tannoy D300, etc.

FIRST RATE BUILD QUALITY, EXCEPTIONAL SOUND FOR THERE VINTAGE, AND LOOKS THAT ARE UN-EQUALED.

IF THEY EVER NEED REPAIR, OPEN YOUR WALLET

I BOUGHT MY FIRST BACK IN 1975. I LIKED THEM SO MUCH, I BOUGHT ANOTHER PAIR AND STACKED THEM. THEY WERE DRIVEN WITH A MARANTZ 510 AMP. PRE-AMP WAS A MARANTZ 3800. EVEN THO THEY SOUNDED NICE, I FOUND THAT THE ONE PAIR RUNNING ALONE YIELDED BETTER SOUND. I SOLD THE SECOND PAIR TO A FRIEND FOR WHAT I PAID FOR THEM. 1800.00. TO THIS DAY, I NEVER GROW TIRED OF THEM AND HAVE OWNED SEVERAL OTHER PAIRS OF SPEAKERS WHICH IN THEIR OWN RIGHT DO THINGS VERY WELL. MAYBE BECAUSE THESE WERE MY FIRST PAIR OF 1st CLASS SPEAKERS I BOUGHT, AND BRINGING BACK FOND MEMORIES OF EARLIER TIMES..WHO KNOWS?? WILL KEEP THEM FOR MY LIFETIME, AND PASS THEM ON TO MY KIDS.

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QUAD 63'S, MARTIN LOGAN CLSIIZ, TOTEM TABU'S, ATC ACTIVE 10'S, DQ 10'S.......

(Strengths) i will say so ya got to be one bad mother to own the ns1000s they weight a woopen 96.5 lbs a peice

(Are you kidden) they know no Weaknesses!!!!!

Helloooo I got the first pr in the 80s (and I Knew they Kicked ASS befor i got them) and always wanted a sec pr so via the net{$200.00} i got another pr Like the first pr (black & Bad) if you dont have a pr of these Speakers im sorry , you dont know what your missing The NS Stands For ( natural sound ) and they are you dont need no EQ just music!( these speakes can make a fart sound like the Morman Tabernacle Choir) im useing ing the 1980 yamaha 810 amp i got when i got the speakers! (great match!) if you can Find a pair you better Damn get them They are the best speakers ever!and listen to www.radiogetswild.co m (tks Kenooo7)

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not even closeee

everything a speaker monitor should do. Good quality in, indentical quality out.

hard to find, and of coarse saying all good things about them makes them even harder to find.

Greetings fellow Audiophiles young and old. After reading all the very nice reviews on the Yamaha NS-1000M speakers I was somewhat surprised to learn that no one is actually using these speakers with their matching preamp and power amp from Yamaha. I have the original and first natural sound series system set-up. The C-1 pre, B-1 with the UC-1 power amp, and of coarse the matching CT-7000 tuner. When used with high quality interconnects and speaker cables these speakers are just about everything you guys have said. They are especially revealing on the mid's and high's with extremely accurate bass. They are quite unforgiving though, and will give you back exactly what they're given to play. The matching C-1 preamp of coarse can quite easily compensate for most any type of un-wanted room acoustics. Most listening is done between 0-10 watts/channel and is class "A" all the way up to that point with an ALL FET front to back design. Very much like tube sound. The amazing thing is you can take that unbelievably good sound reproduction to an almost concert level with between 100-150 watts/channel from the B-1, and the quality does not vary. It really is unreally "REAL"

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The sound is very similar to my Maggie's sound in a lot of ways. not quite as smooth as electromagnetics though.

Cheap audio bargain. Sound like good ESLs but with more punch. Real 3D sound.

Sound shrill with transistor amps. Very revealing so you need really good (not necessarily expensive!)source components.Spare drivers are available but EXPENSIVE.

I shopped for speakers to substitute my Quad ESL57 which are confined to the closet until my son is old enough to understand what 1500 Volts mean. The NS-1000 sound sweet, open and punchy when connected to a push-pull valve amp.I use them in a small Room (18 sq m) and they sure have a room filling sound. With transistor amplification (Quad 303, Micromega AMP) they tend to become overly bright. I rewired the speakers and bridged the attentuators = more clarity but only advisable when partnered with tubes (i.e. Leak TL12)!

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Quad ESL 57, Rega ELA, Rega Kyte

Awesome highs, screaming(without too much) mids, and tight punchy bass. Really quality made.

Yamaha stopped making them.

These are truly the best speakers that Yamaha has ever concieved. An uncle of mine almost just gave them too me when he moved and didn't need them anymore with his kids and all. Yamaha really went out of their way on this one and produced the best speaker I have ever heard. Awesome highs, screaming(without too much) mids, and tight punchy bass(I'm still trying to determine whether it is better on the ground or off the ground). Very highly recommended.

Tight bass, real punch delivered (with a decent amp) non nasal midrange, smooth treble. Adustable tweeter and midrange settings on the speakers. (Set them once and leave them)

1 - Only their weight, but how many times do you really want to move them? 2 - No longer produced. (Re-think this please Yamaha. I want a pair of NS1000's as well!)

Location: Essex - England I first saw and heard a pair of NS1000M's in the Hi-Fi shop I used to work in, back in 1978/79. One had fallen from the back of a delivery lorry and a corner was smashed. We sold them quite cheaply because of this, but not before we had connected them up and listened to them. The sound was excellent and I vowed, one day, to get my own pair. In 1980, and now in a better job, I saved my cash and bought a pair from a store which was selling them for half the price of the usual £1000 (Sterling). I grabbed the phone and ordered them within seconds or reading the offer. I bought a Sansui AU 919 amp at the same time. 23 years later and still have them together at the heart of my system. The speakers were and still are superb. Apart from CD / Phono etc. use, for my musical tastes, I have them connected to my Roland digital piano. The sound is unbelievable, and makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck sometimes. They are easily one of the best loudspeakers ever made (so far) and have been worth every penny I paid for them. (Even at the full price)

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I have some lovely Celestion Ditton 22's and 33's, but they are not in the same league as the Yam 1000M's. (I keep all my loudspeakers anyway. I'm a hoarder!)

Tight bass, real punch delivered (with a decent amp) non nasal midrange, smooth treble. Adustable tweeter and midrange settings on the speakers. (Set them once and leave them)

1 - Only their weight, but how many times do you really want to move them? 2 - No longer produced. (Re-think this please Yamaha. I want a pair of NS1000's as well!)

Location: Essex - England I first saw and heard a pair of NS1000M's in the Hi-Fi shop I used to work in, back in 1978/79. One had fallen from the back of a delivery lorry and a corner was smashed. We sold them quite cheaply because of this, but not before we had connected them up and listened to them. The sound was excellent and I vowed, one day, to get my own pair. In 1980, and now in a better job, I saved my cash and bought a pair from a store which was selling them for half the price of the usual £1000 (Sterling). I grabbed the phone and ordered them within seconds or reading the offer. I bought a Sansui AU 919 amp at the same time. 23 years later and still have them together at the heart of my system. The speakers were and still are superb. Apart from CD / Phono etc. use, for my musical tastes, I have them connected to my Roland digital piano. The sound is unbelievable, and makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck sometimes. They are easily one of the best loudspeakers ever made (so far) and have been worth every penny I paid for them. (Even at the full price)

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I have some lovely Celestion Ditton 22's and 33's, but they are not in the same league as the Yam 1000M's. (I keep all my loudspeakers anyway. I'm a hoarder!)

Sound so accurate it scares you!

Not available from Yamaha anymore, probably because the profit margin is too small. They proved their point and moved on to more profitable mass-produced stuff like everyone else.

One would think that with today's technology, that speakers would just continually get better and better. Unfortunately that isn't exactly the case. The fact is, that to make a great speaker, it cost money, takes time, and requires high quality materials. Most of today's speakers, including many high-end speakers, are made of inferior materials, and are made on assembley lines, where quality control is an afterthought. The result is less than great sound. Back in the late seventies, Yamaha decided to go all out in order to make the best speaker possible. They came up with the NS-1000. In Yamaha's words, "Announcing the End of the Weak Link!" How true that statement was. The fact is that no matter how good your amplifier, cd player, turntable, etc., if your speakers aren't up to the challenge, you won't hear "all the music". With these speakers, you hear "all the music". So much so, that they sound better than ANY speaker I've ever heard, at any price. And I've owned or auditioned literally hundreds of speakers. With no exaggeration, I can say that these speakers makes one CD/record collection sound brand new. Songs I've played hundreds of times sound as though I've heard them for the first time. If you can find a pair of these speakers, I would recommend strongly that you do what you can to scoop them up. There is nothing else out there like them at 5 times the price. The NS-1000 Monitor version can still be found on eBay for $750-$1000. The rarely available NS-1000 home version with the deluxe wood finish are as scarce as a hen's tooth and will usually go for quite a premium, but given their scarcity, they're probably worth it.

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Virtually every decent speaker out there