![[Back Order] Yamaha HS8 $391.50/Single, $783/Pair Delivered @ Billy Hyde](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/36/674136.jpg?h=e0092d97)
Great price on one of the most well respected studio monitors.
Note these are not recommended for general listening, they are designed for music creators.
[Back Order] Yamaha HS8 $391.50/Single, $783/Pair Delivered @ Billy Hyde
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The HS8 still sound really good to my ears, but most consumer speakers for TV or music are heavily coloured to make the listening experience more ‘enjoyable’.
Neutral speakers may be tiring on the ears for some. Just wanted to warn people who may not be aware.
I haven’t heard the Edifers so can’t compare them sorry!
Ignore, these speakers are fine for everything, in fact I'd say they sound better than most consumer style because they don't have a silly pre applied eq curve.
e: you better say why because these sound fine no matter what I've thrown at them. So many others end up using them as general purpose as well: gaming, movies, etc all sound fine.
I think that's quite a misleading comment. These are work tools, not Hifi speakers. A decent amp and some passive speakers, that you like the tonality of and that give you good EQ controls, will allow you to get much closer to the sound you want than speakers like this. These speakers won't sound bad, but they're not meant for consumers and casual listening. They're design for critical listening
A decent amp and speakers aren't going to cost $750. There's no way you'll get the same sound quality out of a cheap consumer style setup. Even if you haven't sound treated the room correctly they still sound better than most overpriced speakers.
@Jenny Death: "Better" is subjective of course, and I'll say again: if you just love the speakers and the way they sound, more power to you. If you don't have the time or inclination to do a tonne of research, then I would say buy second hand, or get yourself a pair of high end Edifier, Audio Engines, used KEF's or some other active speakers. These require specific setups for specific results and aren't designed for most consumer use and setups
Do you want to spend $780 on speakers and only say they sound "fine"? If I was spending that much, I'd want them to sound quite impressive. Refer to my longer dot point comment posted far below as to why these aren't appropriate for casual listening/consumer use. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from buying these if they happen to like their tonality or want a very "honest" and flat sound, but to say that sound as good or better than Hi-Fi speakers is misleading. It's like recommending a trade van to your Mum who occasionally needs to move a single pot plant. The van is a work tool, designed for a specific job, and your Mum would be fine in a hatchback, unless she specifically LOVES to drive panel vans for some reason.
On average, most people would be as happy, if not happier, with a setup that is smaller, potentially cheaper and more accepting of imperfect listening environments and positioning than these speakers.
Reviews say that they share the same sound signature of NS10, and being active. If that’s the case it would be a bargain for pc speakers.
I haven’t listened to neither ns10 nor hs8 , but i did listened to properly amplified ns1000 they sound ok.
the hs8 might be a lil bulky for pc speakers. they can take up quite a bit of real-estate on the desk. may need to get speaker stands as an alternative. though for pc use I'd prob lean to the brother model (hs5) for pc use.
can't go wrong with the hs8 on a side note. I use them in my lounge room to watch TV. I don't edit music but appreciate listening to master chef. Def makes mystery boxes more exciting.
will recommend a sub for the low end frequencies.
Sounds reasonable, i haven’t got experience with those pro level near field monitor speakers. Would they be optimised in a way that they sound only best when listening really nearby, and not so much when at general typical entertainment room listening distance?
I'm no expert sorry. the way I use mine isn't the way they were intended to be used in my honest opinion. though from general readings they are designed to be used as if you were sitting pretty close to them opposed to a loungeroom setup.
the sound changes from where I sit or laying..though I find it subtle enough not to worry.
would agree with pablo1 comment above. they are more accurate than any consumer speaker.
to put it simply. if my speaker setup died, I'd go out and get another studio monitor setup. they do make watching regular tv/movies/music very enjoyable.
going back to adding a sub comment, the hs8s I found weak for the size of my room. something else for consideration :).
Yes, the "2.1" setups with woofer under the desk make more sense.
NS10's were/are extremely popular as mixing/mastering speakers because if you can get your mix to sound good on them, then you've probably done a good job. It's specificay because they sound so unforgiving (and not in a good way) that they were popular, not because they sounded good (if anything, they're a bit flat and harsh)
Thank you OP,
have been searching for a pair of HS8 but didn't want to go down to the HS7 to pair with a sub, nor the HS5
Merry Christmas!I have previous version of Presonus Eris 8” , IMHO 1 pair is better than standard Yamaha 5.1 with active sub, minus the “surround” of course
I work in audio production and have some recommendations for speakers like these:
- HS8's are large, and you need a sizeable room with the speakers placed far enough away from the wall behind them for speakers like this to make sense. If you're using them in a bedroom or study, they're overkill, and I'd go smaller (lots of guides online for speaker sizing based on position, room size and shape).
- These are work tools, not for "enjoyable" listening. I guarantee you'll be disappointed by these compared to a similar priced Hifi setup that is designed to sound punchy and warm.
- I wouldn't recommend adding a subwoofer to these speakers unless your space has sufficient acoustic treatment and room size, or else the bass will be very overpowering and will confuse the mix in your ears.
- Acoustic space, shape and sound treatment (not "soundproofing", you need "treatment") is literally half the equation to a good sound setup and it would be worth spending at least as much of the price of the speakers on acoustic treatment (where appropriate) to get the best result. If you're not going to do this, don't bother buying these kinds of speakers.
- speaker placement is crucial. The speakers' placement and your head should form an equilateral triangle and the speakers should be at ear height. If you can't achieve that, then don't bother with speakers like this, as the "sweet spot" is everything with monitor speakers, moreso than with Hi-Fi ones which aren't designed with the assumption that you'll be sitting in that sweet spot.
Hope this can be helpful to some. I wish I had known these things when I was younger and was wasting money on gear that I didn't have the knowledge to utilise properly.
I've been casually mixing for about 15 years and learnt a bunch of lessons the hard way along the way, all of which is to say that what you've said here is exactly right and I'm mad you got downvoted above for that reason. Monitors are better than cheap consumer speakers, but the whole point is that they reveal flaws in the mix, and if you haven't treated your room or positioned them correctly they won't even do that perfectly.
Will these speakers sound good? Depends what you're switching from. Will they be the best speakers you can get for your use case for the money? Depends whether your use case is critical listening or casual listening. If it's casual listening, you'd be better off with hi-fi, and if it's critical listening, make sure you're investing time/energy/money in treatment and placement etc. I use 5" speakers in my small room and they're more than enough, you'll still want good headphones to check bass anyhow.
Thank you for the words of support! It's much appreciated.
I didn't really intend to argue with that other person in the other thread, and if people like these speakers, then that's great and they should buy them. But yeah there's a lot of misinformation on this site about these kinds of monitor speakers and I've seen a million photos of people's pc gaming and listening setups where the things I mention have not been considered and it just seems a waste to spend $800 on speakers and not even use them properly.
There's probably a pinned post or something somewhere on this site that people can refer to about some speaker guides and basics. But as with many things, Reddit and audio forums are our friends!
Note these are active speakers. Can be connected directly to your streaming device, such as
WTF does that mean? What if I like my "general listening" to be true to the original recording? "unenhanced"
Would these not be a step up from the Edifier monitors that are popular here?