All the Drivers are in Excellent Condition
Very Minor Imperfection on the cabinet. Matching Serial
Original Owner
Sound Good with My Cary tube Amplifier
Sound even better with my Classe Amplifier
NS-1000M, Yamaha set out to make a fully rounded high-end loudspeaker, one that delivered a wide bandwidth, handled a massive amount of power by the standards of the day, had very low distortion and a lightning-fast transient response. It was an audacious product and one that would become a particular favourite in US and Japanese recording studios for its combination of transparency, bandwidth and power handling.
Metal Head
This loudspeaker is most famous for its beryllium tweeter and midrange dome drive units. Without these, it simply would not be what it is – think of a Ferrari Daytona without an engine or gearbox made in Maranello. From these bespoke drivers, everything else followed. Indeed, you could say it was simply an extremely well executed showcase for these drivers since much of the rest of the speaker is pretty conventional for its time.
Ideally a drive unit needs to be super strong (rigid), exceptionally light and well damped. Done this way, it should be able to capture every last nuance of the sound at great speed, without distorting it. This is easier said than done because a conventional moving-coil transducer is limited in performance by the material used for its cone or dome. Back in the early '70s, makers of high-end speakers were moving away from using paper for their domes and cones to heavy plastics such as Bextrene – as seen in KEF's legendary series of drive units of that period [see HFN Mar '12]. Yamaha's use of super-light beryllium seemed the stuff of science fiction by comparison.
Before the launch of Yamaha's domestic NS-1000 and the 'monitor' NS-1000M version, there had been various attempts at making metal-coned drivers, but these were crude and not entirely successful. That's why it was all the more remarkable that Yamaha's researchers came up with a way to use beryllium in a safe and consistent manner using a special vacuum deposition process. Beryllium is the lightest metal in the periodic table to be stable. Before it are the gases hydrogen and helium and the metal lithium, which burns in air. Contrast that with the likes of magnesium, aluminium and titanium, which are heavier metals, and you can see why beryllium is ideal.
Speaker Info
The Yamaha NS-1000 were designed and released to the market in 1974. They received very good reviews
These monitors featured exactly the same components as the domestic version but had the enclosures made from chipboard with plywood bracing, giving them equally impressive weight of 31kg per speakers. Design of both versions, even by today’s standards is outstanding. Both tweeter and midrange drivers feature extremely rigid beryllium domes. The bass is as 12in compressed paper pulp cone working in heavily dampen sealed enclosure.
Yamaha NS-1000M Specs
Frequency Response: 40 – 20,000Hz
Sensitivity: 90dB (1W input, measured at 1m)
Impedance: 8Ω
Power Capacity: 100W (continuous program)
High Frequency Driver: JA0513 30mm (1.2″) Beryllium Dome
Medium Frequency Driver: JA0801 88mm (3.5″) Beryllium Dome
Low Frequency Driver: JA3055A 300mm (12″) Paper Diaphragm
Crossover Frequencies: 500Hz & 6,000Hz
Enclosure Type: Closed
Enclosure Dimensions (HxWxD): 675x375x326mm (26.5×14.75×12.75″)
Weight: 31kg (each speaker)
Production Year: 1974