None of the worldwide reviews on the NS-5000 mention the effect of the finish as improving the signal to noise ratio, just that the finish improves cabinet rigidity. With the introduction of the speakers to the US, Yamaha I believe changed this copy on all of its worldwide market websites and something got lost in translation. Yamaha paid great attention to the cabinet construction to dampen even micro vibrations. Aside from the overall construction and novel internal damping mechanisms, the company employed FEM analysis and according to one review, a "laser vibroscope" (actually I believe this is a Doppler laser vibrometer). What Yamaha explained to one reviewer is that it believes, which apparently its measurements confirm, is that the 1.2mm thick piano finish dampens micro vibrations better than veneer, just as the birch plywood obviously performs better than MDF. As an example of attention to detail, the company experienced some early problems with the Hokkaido birch plywood not acclimating properly to the humid climate of Indonesia, where the speakers are manufactured. That problem was solved by adjusting the moisture content of the plywood during the manufacturing process in the Hokkaido mill. While it is impossible to state with total accuracy, and while Yamaha employs skilled labor, the national minimum wage in Indonesia is less than a tenth of what it is in Japan or the USA. Yamaha priced the NS-5000 in a highly competitive price point. One can only imagine the economies of scale they realized by manufacturing in Indonesia and what these speakers may have cost if created by a smaller manufacturer, if that were even possible considering they took 8 years to develop and apparently were afforded virtually unlimited resources. That's for a loudspeaker that as another review noted, is really a studio quality monitor disguised as a consumer product.
