Yamaha NS1000M Help, Advice, PLEASE

You guys are the best! Many thanks. I'm going to start on the "doorskins" next weekend. I'm not too worried b/c the cabinets are not mint; they have a few blemishes already and a few small chips. If anyone thinks I would be MUCH better off leaving the cabinets black, please advise. Meanwhile, these things are a blast to listen to. I love my Meadowlarks, but now I'm not sure which I like better. The Meadowlarks are more laid-back, but the Yammies are scary accurate. Hmmmmmm...

I have owned a pair of black oak NS1000M since 1980. I still have them, and use them in my audio system in my study. I also owned a pair of Snell Type AIIIi for 20 years until I upgraded them in my main system with Snell XA Reference Towers. In my experience, both these speakers were the "best in class" at the time in early 80's. My Yamaha's are in absolute mint condition, and they have been set up on the Yamaha heavy metal stands, 9" high, that were made for them. They sound just as thrilling today as they did 29 years ago! I paid $1100 in 1980. Anything comparable today would cost 8-10 times more.

The ONLY change I made to the speakers was to replace the spring clips with 5-way binding posts. IT WAS NOT EASY. The original connectors cannot be removed easily because Yamaha sealed the soldered joints with some kind of glue. The crossover circuit board is a sandwich of two boards and it is practically attached to the spring clip board. I had to extract the crossover combo out carefully (still connected to the tone controls), separate the two circuit boards by removing several wires to get to the clip, use a knife to remove all the glue from the cracks to free up the spring clip and remove it. You have to do this twice. PLEASE TAKE PICTURES OF THE ORIGINAL WIRE CONNECTIONS ON THE COMBO BOARDS BEFORE YOU UNSOLDER THEM TO MAKE SURE YOU RECONNECT THEM THE RIGHT WAY LATER. You can use any decent 5-way posts. Eichmann's would fit quite well.

I like black. I believe the originals M's came only in black. They made another cabinet variation which came in various veneer finishes. If your veneer surface is damaged, I would go with the "doorskin" approach, but I would strongly recommend keeping it black to maintain the value of the "original". Please make sure that you sand the surface down to very smooth - remove all "bumps" and fill any gouges. Otherwise the doorskin veneer won't look good.

A heavy stand, 9-10" high, slightly tilted upward, is absolutely necessary to get the best out of these speakers. You lose the striking clarity of the beryllium tweeters and the world class midrange if you put them on the floor.

I don't know how to remove the metal grill from the woofer, since I never had to. I suggest you use pressurized air to gently blow the dust from the cones.

Good luck.

More great advice!! Vjay00 you must have gotten your Yammies half-price; the retail in 1981 was $2,100 per pair. My seller still had the original receipt, and that price is posted online otherwise. Anyhow, I'm going to use the "doorskin" approach very carefully, and update you guys after the deed is done.

FWIW, they sound nice with J-FET-based amps too.

Klipschking, I believe the list price in 1980 was $1,350 and my dealer gave me a "system" discount.