2. speakers
  3. 1248564952

Yamaha NS1000M Help, Advice, PLEASE

Hello all. I purchased a nice pair of the legendary Yamaha NS1000M today. I got a good deal on them, and I actually bought them with the intention of trading them for a nice pair of Planar speakers. Then I made the mistake of hooking them up. Oh my. These things are wonderful. Perhaps the ugliest speaker ever made, but truly astonishing sound. I hate to say it, but in some ways superior to my (formerly) unassailable Meadowlark Shearwater "Hotrods". Enough background. I have several questions.

1. This pair was made in 1981 (original stickers still on the rear), and they use the old-style spring-loaded terminals. I hate those things. Will it ruin the value or be a bad idea to install a nice pair of WBT 5-way binding posts or similar?

2. If keeping the original terminals is best, what type of speaker wire should I use? The darn things won't accept anything heavier than bare 14 ga. wire. Is there an audiophile wire designed for this application, or am I relegated to the ole Radio Shack "zipcord"?

3. This pair has the black ash finish, and they are not attractive. Would it be a bad idea (or affect the value) to have the cabinets refinished and stained a medium cherry or oak?

4. The 12" woofers are dirty; really dirty. Is there a way to get behind the metal mesh covers to clean them up? My vacuum will get some of it, but I really need to run a tacky cloth over them to get all the crud. Suggestions?? Are the metal mesh covers removable?

5. I currently have these monsters on my carpeted floor, and the mids and tweeters are significantly lower than my ear-level. What brand, type and size speaker stands are recommended for these speakers.

Thanks all. I'm awestruck. Any other suggestions from you NS1000 fans will be greatly welcome!! -David
klipschking
klipschking OP
83 posts
 
Great stories guys. These things really sing. I keep the tweeter and mid-range pots in the neutral position, and I don't find the treble so much "hot" or "bright" as much as I do "accurate". The detail is simply amazing; very much like a good electrostatic. I think I'm going to gently remove the black paint/stain, and attempt to stain the underlying oak. In that way if the finish doesn't look good, I can go back over it with the original black. I'm going to keep the original spring-clips, but use some Vampire wire pins to terminate my solid-core Audioquest cables. Hey, they're only "original" once, right? Thanks one and all.
bwcanuck
30 posts
 
I actually own one pair of NS-1000Ms, two pairs of NS-2000s, some B&W, Manger MSWs and Quad ESL-63s. There's a bit of an interesting story behind my 2000s; they are NOS with one pair still in the wrapping, but that's for another day. The woofers are actually 13" diagonally, not 15" and the mid and high drivers have a different visual texture than the NS-1000s, and the tweeter frame is larger on the 2000. For the Yamahas I would venture to say the weakness is the absence of time alignment (I'm not even sure if people notice this) and wide acoustic axis spacing due to motor structure size, but remedying this likely would have raised end buyer cost by a notable margin.

I found the Yamahas by accident in a showroom while in search for something much different and had no idea what they were. Needless to say after listening a few times I was impressed and I paid a bit on the higher end of the spectrum I suppose but from inquiries I've learned the prices varied. The bass is great and dynamic but its not as refined as the 63's bass. So far I haven't found another loudspeaker as clear or color free from the mids up as the NS-1000M apart from the NS-2000. While the driver placement doesn't allow as flat of a response with the 2000s', the highs are noticeably clearer.
griffinconst
61 posts
 
Sorry if this was mentioned already but you can use "speaker pin connectors" with those spring terminals.
The ones @ Monoprice are gold plated, take up to 12 AWG wire, and are less than $4 a pair.
Congrats on finding some speakers that you love.
klipschking OP
83 posts
 
Thanks again everyone. I found a nice pair of 24K gold plated brass pins at Radio Shack, and used them to terminate a pair of Audioquest cables. I can't believe how good these speakers are!! I would love to see John Atkinson @ Stereophile compare them to some of the newer high-end speakers. I know where my money would be!
dazone
57 posts
 
The cheapest way to stand (that I know of) with no signature is stacked concrete blocks from Loew's. Open face out. You can spray paint em anything.
More to discover