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NS-1000
NS-1000M
(1975 - 1985)
If my beloved Janszen were
to die on me, the NS-1000 is the only box I'd ever welcome (the
bigger FX-3,
too).
A real statement loudspeaker, Yamaha touted that it was
"the end of the weak link"... NS stands for Natural
Sound, Yamaha's top-end series, still online today, but perhaps with
less stringent specs. M stands for Monitor, maturally.
Two
zeros below, the 1977 NS-10M distant descendant graced many a studio throughout
the 1980s and 1990s, with lots of us tweaking 'em to death to bring
this tiny thingy to the limit. I still use my (tweaked) 10M
daily.
The stars of the 1000M show are obviously the
Beryllium
domes, built with a process not so distant from the one used for the
V-FET
transistors from... Yamaha (and Sony). Vapor deposited in
vacuum on a pre-shaped copper mold,
Beryllium is way better than aluminum, titanium, magnesium or
whatever-um. Not to mention soft domes. Yamaha's ultimate
(literally) G-F1 and Sony's excellent
Bio-Cellulose was yet to come but that is
another story.
The NS-1000 is the "home"
version, adorned with a lavish ebony/polyurethane finish and no a
veneer add-on, mind you but real solid thick wood! Apart from this
8kg surplus of good looks and the protecion on the woofer of the
"M", both versions are identical. The 1000M saw an upgraded
NS-1000X
version (carbon charged woofer, 1982), a later NS-2000 (1984) and an ultimate version in the
NSX-10000,
produced in eveb smaller quantities for Yamaha's 1987
Centennial anniversary.
More recently, JM Lab, french
manufacturer of such grand designs as the Utopia, brought Beryllium center stage again
for a line of professional monitoring
loudspeakers.
Unlike most
audio masterpieces, there are thousands and thousands of NS-1000s
around the world so catching a pair isn't difficult at all. Spare
beryllium domes still are available, too, and all of these were and still are matched pairs - either you
make one of the best loudspeakers ever or you
don't. |
