Yamaha HS7 or HS8 Active Monitors

Which one you you choose

  • HS7 (6.5” Driver)

    Votes: 2 100.0%
  • HS8 (8” Driver)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

Eldarvanyar

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Hi,
I am thinking of buying some Yamaha Active Monitors HS7 with 6.5 inch driver or HS8 with an 8 inch driver for listening to music.
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My room is 10’ x 10’ and I will be listening from 5’ - 6’ away. These are normally used as near field monitors for mixing but I would think they could be used for normal listening to music with the advantage of them being active.
635DDB5A-3C33-4D2E-938A-6E642FF65A31.jpeg
The crossover point on both speakers is 2khz with the 1” tweeter.
My understanding is that there is a trade off between the 6.5” driver having better mids and b less bass and the 8” driver having better bass but not so good on the mids.
both of them are rear ported.
Does anyone have any advice or experience of using these in this way or any other active monitors? Thanks

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Have you listened to either of these?

My son has the hs7 and they are a little bass shy but they are brutally revealing and have a flat response. If you have a good recording that sound amazing but with a bad one they sound awful I.e. they pass through all of the imperfections.

If you are used to hifi speakers these may not be the best for you, you may be better looking at Dynaudio, Adam, Focal or Mackie.

As for which size, I have the Mackie HR824, 8” in a similar size room and they are plenty, depending on the furnishings the bass could be too much.

Best thing is to get yourself down to a pro audio shop and have a listen to a few pair.

Out of interest what are you feeding them with? Are you looking for new or second hand?
 
Have you listened to either of these?

My son has the hs7 and they are a little bass shy but they are brutally revealing and have a flat response. If you have a good recording that sound amazing but with a bad one they sound awful I.e. they pass through all of the imperfections.

If you are used to hifi speakers these may not be the best for you, you may be better looking at Dynaudio, Adam, Focal or Mackie.

As for which size, I have the Mackie HR824, 8” in a similar size room and they are plenty, depending on the furnishings the bass could be too much.

Best thing is to get yourself down to a pro audio shop and have a listen to a few pair.

Out of interest what are you feeding them with? Are you looking for new or second hand?

Thanks for the reply, I would buy new and can go to a music shop in Eastbourne to hear them. They can be tuned on the back but probably much depends on the room itself.
I can feed them with a Quad 44 preamp although in the future I may look at a balanced preamp.
I could also use my Cambridge audio DAC which Hs balances outs to feed them.
 
If the shop can get them in it may be worth comparing the HS7 or 8 with the new Tannoy Gold 7 or 8 and possibly the Adam T7V.

This would give you a cross section, traditional woofer/dome tweeter, concentric and woofer ribbon tweeter.

I had a quad 44, nice preamp, but th3 output is fairly low (100mV) which will limit the max volume of the speakers but should be fine at domestic levels, take it into the audition to try.

If you dac is the dacmagic plus then you can run this as a preamp iirc for digital sources. Again take it along to the audition if you can.

Then let your ears decide. Only thing I would say is make sure that they are all playing the same volume, an old salesman’s trick is to play the one you want to sell slightly louder.
 
Thanks I could take the sac magic plus as a digital preamp as that would be easier to do.
 
I would think they could be used for normal listening to music with the advantage of them being active.
Spot on - they can and many do.

My understanding is that there is a trade off between the 6.5” driver having better mids and b less bass and the 8” driver having better bass but not so good on the mids.
both of them are rear ported.
Does anyone have any advice or experience of using these in this way or any other active monitors?

This is often, though not always, the case. Personally, in a 10' x 10' room , I'd choose between a 5" and a 6.5" model - I wouldn't consider an 8" model suitable, but each to their own. Studio monitors often have bass response shaping so a larger speaker (than I would normally choose to use) could possibly be adjusted to give an accurate tonal balance. At the end of the day, it's down to personal preference, room structure and furnishings etc.

I've not heard either of the Yamaha's 'in the flesh', only online. There are a few websites that go to great lengths to carefully record the output of a selection of studio monitors consistently and in very high quality which can be useful for preliminary comparisons bit not absolute conclusions. Whenever I've heard the HS7 online, it always sounds mid-forward to my ears/brain (a bit shouty) whereas other small-ish studio monitor speakers, such as the JBL LSR305 (now JBL 305P Mk2), sound very well balanced, tonally. The KRK Rokit RP5 G3 (now in G4 guise) consistently sounds marginally dull and with a strong bass, IMO.

I know many folk don't rate online speaker comparisons but (dare I say for experienced listeners?) such online comparisons have their uses - just don't make a final decision based on an online demo.

Like a growing number of folk on these forums, I employ a pair of cheap active studio monitors (Studiospares Seiwin 6A) for everyday listening and I've no inclination to upgrade anytime soon.

@Ugg10 makes a good point in post#4 about preamp output and active monitor input voltage matching. Not all active monitors have the same input sensitivity so best check suitability before purchase. Traditionally, inputs on professional active monitors require several volts for full output, but these days the situation is less clear. Most of the cheaper active monitors require only 0.75 to 1.0 Volts input for full output.
 
The price of both products is really ridiculus. I plan to by the HS7. A friend of mine has the HS7 and is very content.
 
A friend of mine has the HS7 and is very content.

That's good news for your friend but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be satisfied with the same speakers. There really is no 'best' or 'worst' speaker at any price point - it depends on your exact situation and personal preferences.

Have you listened to your friends system? If so, what did you make of it?

Heed Ug10's advice in post#2 - the HS7 is uncompromising - some might say a bit 'shouty'. Plenty of other active speaker alternatives with a slightly less exposed-sounding midrange, such as the highly regarded JBL 306P Mk2.
 

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