Yamaha ns 5000

My NS 5000's are on casters I sized to screw into the spike location on the stands. It provides useful 3 inch lift. I have them connected to Red Dragon M500 monoblocks. Preamp/DAC for now is an Emotive XDA-3. 

We visited the Yamaha Innovation Road museum in Hamamatsu, Japan. They have grand pianos costing multiples of NS 5000. But there is also a display of NS 5000 cut open and disassembled. Signage says the speaker was by a team of young engineers. It also displays the zylon (carbon fiber) driver material in different manufacturing stages. The woofer coil is literally one pound of copper. The back wave dampers look like tumble generators.

As you peruse the museum you notice the exhaustive research (world's largest musical instrument maker) in resonance with wood in violins, guitars, pianos, etc. Hence NS 5000's mitered joint plywood construction is deliberate. 

Few names at any price point can match the research, resources, buying power, and pro audio ubiquity behind this speaker with its drivers all of the same material. It is not for flea watt amps. $15K is real money. Do your own research.

I truly enjoy this speaker. Yamaha is such an honest manufacturer when it comes to pricing...just look at the sheer amount of resources spent to develop this speaker from scratch, the innovation and what they price it at. Compare it to the trash that’s priced at 50k (with purchased drivers that run a couple of 100 dollars tops)...the 50k crooks gave you a polished cabinet and the price of non-innovative trash went to 50k apparently!

P.S. 30 watts class A ain’t working on the Yamaha... Luxman m900u, Schiit Tyr, etc are examples of the kind of power it requires.

My setup is

• Yamaha NS5000
• Schitt Yggi+ OG DAC (using fibre optic to stream into USB)
• Benchmark HPA4 preamp
• CODA #16 amp (first 100 watts Class A | 150 - 300 - 600)

I am good with this setup. It was the Yggi+ OG that really put this over the finish line. A great DAC at any cost. I had the Yggi+ LIM on the NS5000 instead of the OG and it was not as good. It was missing some top end. I love the LIM on my Magnepan LRS+, but not so much on the NS5000.

The Sanders Magtech amp and the Benchmark AHB2 were not as good on the NS5000 as the CODA #16. The Magtech is incredible on the Magnepan LRS+.

The 2 speakers that I narrowed it down to for the final decision were the KEF Blade 2 Meta and the NS5000. Both because they sounded great, and both had unsurpassed research and tech in the design.