Yamaha NS1000M Help, Advice, PLEASE

Yeah, if you like black ash or piano black, they're nice. I don't, but I'm reluctant to re-finish them. Anyone have any idea what they're worth?

they are becoming increasingly rare in stock-mint condition, and sonically they better some of the esoteric megabuck speakers..keep them that way.....it you don't like using bare wires, use gold pins.

I have owned/upgraded many pairs of these classic speakers. If I had room for three sets, one would be the Ns1000, one the Quad 63, and my current favorite the Wilson WP7(negotiable). Somewhat in order of importance:

TRY TUBES. These speakers love tubes. Adds more "music" than the "clinical" that ss shows.

Rewire internally with good wire. Internal wiring looks like door bell wire attached to cheap spring connecters. Instaal connecters you like. Bypass the tone controls since they inevitably become dirty and degrade the sound. My personal favorite was Audioquest single strand SILVER that I bought from the company after helpful consultation with the Co. Again, silver takes a very small but wecomed edge off the tweeter which is mostly too hot.

The exterior is simple. Take out the drivers and either lightly sand the cabinets to get as much black off as possible and refinish. The problem with this is that the veneer is thin and you will probably sand through unless you are quite good a woodworking. A second amd much preferred option is to re-veneer the cabinets. You can buy what are called "doorskins" which are door sized peices of veneer in most any wood you want. Golden oak was visually fun, the only oak monitors to my knowledge. You have infinite choices.

The height of stands is important to room size and base. The best "stand" ever was another MS1000M on tiptoes with tweeters in the middle. It was scarry good and still makes me smile. I forget how we wired the four speakers but I'm sure someone can come up with suggestions. One of the best sounds in my near 40 years of hign end including the big Wilson X-2's. More practical and effective are cement blocks. Speaker stands need to be inert. Nothing I know of is more inert than cement blocks. Try the old knuckle test one. After you have deterimed the correct height for your room with different combinations of blocks, have a stand built to your needs or have an exterior built of the same wood as your speakers have become and leave the blocks in place. Now, I would fill the blocks and exteriors with spray foam to eliminate stand resonances.

I would be open to discussing and other issues with NS1000M speakers. It would be fun to revisit the crossover since parts are fare superior. I did get a pair down to a very usable mid 30hz with careful placement. Black works for thses as monitor speakers but a Yamaha also sold a 1000S that was done in teak if my memory serves me.

Denny
989-673-8493

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.