yup i heard about that sub, i dont know if even that adds enough bass,im sure it imporves it though... i hear about 50/50 yes and no on that when i research it. i dont know what to say....when i installed the yammies i was shocked and dissapointed, but i understand that that is only my opinion and it doesnt ness reflect the opinions of others =)..who knows i guess 2 sets of them could have been defective, its not unheard of

Can't agree with ya. I decided the exact opposite as you suggest.

Best thing I did recently was go an listen to several different well known and often recommended monitors. Did they all sound the same? Hell no! heh Each brand has different characteristics. The higher the price bracket the better of course but a pair of focals and a sub were way over my budget.

Compromises are made on cheaper monitors, I read that the atc scm300asl are truly flat but cost 30k so I say find the best monitors you can for your budget and if you can take the time out to listen. I tried to be objective in my purchase and felt that the yams were the most honest sub £500 monitors and had similar qualities to the more expensive focals.

It's a weird one on the bass though. Sit in normal range and it's not there, sit back a few feet and I can feel it in my chest and through the floor! It's the same on kicks as well, I can hear the shape of the kick where the lower mid seems to be missing otherwise which someone else did mention. Basically i'm burning then in for the helluvit but at the same time i'm listening for the issues that others have had. Everyone can't be wrong!

They project unlike any other monitors i've heard before and I think that might be why there is such opposing opinion. I need to get some treatment in next and see how that affects things but so far I am happy with the yammies. Ymwv.

You probably have to put the sub in another room just to hear the bass.

I hope you have read some info on acoustics and room modes, that definitely sounds like a problem with your room and nothing to do with the monitors.

Looks like everyone forgot what the OP asked, his question was about the HS80 compared to the NS10s and not if you love your HS80. I think that was already answered.

I have both. They sound different but, are equally useful.

In your abrasively sarcastic way, you almost make a good point. Speaking entirely from my own point of view (though I suspect there is some universality in it), the way I hear changes according to my energy level and mood. If I make decisions concerning frequency balance later in the evening, in the morning I will find too much high frequency in the mix. The reason why it's best to make decisions quickly and minimize the soloing of tracks is that the ear quickly adapts. Same for why the last part overdubbed always gets mixed too loudly in the rough mix for the day.

However, your conclusion is wrong and does not follow from the premise. The point (obviously) is to create a mix that will sound good, within a range of tolerance, no matter the playback system. You cannot create a mix that will allow the listener to hear low end if they are listening through speakers that reproduce no bass, but you can craft a mix that will allow them to hear what the bass guitar and kick are doing irregardless. You can't prevent someone from turning up the subwoofers in the trunk to levels that annoy people a mile away, but you can present the material below 70 Hz in such a way that it behaves within a range that they've come to expect.

The tools you use do matter, and the acoustic properties of your room do matter. You optimize when you can, and adapt and compensate otherwise.

I couldn't care less whether you or the OP chooses to use hs80m's or krk's, but the hs80m's do reproduce bass pretty well for speakers in this price range. Several years ago I remember finding the krk's a little hyped in that regard - based upon comparison at Sam Ash and Guitar center. Who knows how valid that impression is because different speakers will react differently in a given space - especially in the low end. Inches make a difference, where the ports are relative to the walls and the ceilings make a difference.

After mixing on the hs80's for a year I moved on to s3a's. My mixes improved immediately and came together more quickly. However, I always felt like I was guessing at the low mids, and, after 3 years with the s3a's, I moved on to mm27's. The mastering engineer ended up pushing 65 hz and below in the first record I mixed with them because I hadn't bothered to measure the response in my room with the new monitors/placement. There is a pretty good bump from 30-60 Hz now. I haven't yet taken the time to attempt to deal with that because I've been too busy; I just let that frequency range live a little large for the moment. I have since measured, and it's pretty flat from there on up. The low mids are much clearer now, the consequence of EQ and compression on bass guitar are now way more obvious. Mixes now come together more quickly, and clients hardly ever ask for revisions.

Making your clients happy is the important thing if you're trying to make money, and, the more accurate your monitoring, the more that can coincide with making your own ears happy.

I have. I was severely lacking in sleep when i wrote that but i was trying to make sense of why some say there's no bass whereas some say there's plenty of bass (why i bought 'em), adequate bass or shake-your-bones sub bass.

It could be a room issue but in that position the low end sounded natural. I could hear the transient of the kick and low bass notes were well defined. It's not just that though, i've been playing with different setups and the further back i am the better the low end extension.

Btw this in on commercial and sample cds, my own stuff sounds fine and translates well which doesn't really make sense apart from the fact that where i can hear the bass is where i sit when tracking!

I have checked videos off the yamaha hs80,s and i do say the lack bass......
Now you think: how can you make that decision trough a video ?,wel listening and paying attention to the sound helps ;D. How can a cardboard cone even bring proper bass ? in the 1st place. I think such speakers are good for checking the mids and highs but the low end with cardboard ?.

=/.....Have you ever seen subwoofers with a cardboard cone ? or a sound system in a car with carboards. ?

Anyhow are they any beter then my krk,s ? i can get them for the half off the price xD.....

my four 15" cardboard woofers beg to differ.

Yamaha NS10s have cardboard woofers and...... the rest is history

Videos to hear bass? Really?
What kind of room was it recorded in?
Who is hosting these videos and what sort of compression, eq, degredation does their encoding cause?
Mic type used to record the audio?
Mixed down EQ compresser or other?
What speakers are you listening to these videos on?
Through what D/A?

LOTTA ROOM for fail in listening to anything from a video.

And I have yet to see ANY car subwoofer systems used for any serious mixing and mastering in professional sound studios. Whoa.

HS80s have fine bass. Like most 8" speakers do. Not killer 30hz like subwoofers do, but enough to represent average bass in a good variety of speaker systems.
HS80 has much better bass than the NS10 (per topic)

Hahaha are you mad ? heh.....Did i say car subwoofer system for mixing mastering ? no sir. I said iff cardboard whas appropertiate for bass respons then why wouldn't they make subwoofers with cardboard.

And 30hz.....you can't hear that anymore just feel it on your eardrums.
Just be honest the HS serieis from yamaha are just very mid-high forwarding. + Is it realy true that the HS50 come closer to the yamaha NS10 ? with certain settings on the back ? :O.
I can get anything i want for the half off the price (square beezneez ...).

yeah... I was sort of jabbing at the point of thinking car boom box woofers are designed for anything other than pushing an annoying amount of air SOLELY like an air pressure attack on nearby vehicles, and not too worried about accuracy in "listening" to bass.

HS80s don't sound like the ns10s since they are completely different designs, but the freq can be adjusted to SEEM similar.
hs80 is ported, ns10 is not
hs80 has polypropylene woofer, ns10 is paper (cardboard)
hs80 tweeter is simetrically aligned, ns10 is not
hs80 housing is super nanonic alien robo-metali-plasticene*, ns10 is wood

*may not be entirely accurate description

when I bought my 80s (there, I said it, I'm a happy owner) I did 3 months of exhaustive research, visited the local Guitar Center (my only option to hear speaks live in my locale) helped them tune and realign their listening center speakers line up - which, I will add, was just hideous: right speakers in corner, levels all over the place, speakers at different levels include at me feet and above my head.... anyway, after literally hours of test tones, listening to reference disks, the HS80 sounded better, clearer, tighter than anything else they had. To me. So, that is why they work for me. The m-audios, krks, mackie, etc were all less defined and some even muddy bass. The new TANNOY is interesting - more upfront, but clear and detailed - maybe too much but I am not sure since I dont own them, but they were very detailed. And lacked ALL the bass of everything else.
My 12 cents

Ooooh i see. Tough i wanted to buy the HS80 myself as first set off speakers but in a room off 6.23 feet wide..... My krks are almost in the front corners Tough these are front ported so i think that won't be a problem unlike Rear ported speakers closely in a corner.

Tough im willing to buy another set off speakers so i can mix on my krk,s and extra-tune the track on another set. And i whas thinking bout d a HS50 cuz as i mentioned in previous post that the smaller ones with a specific setting come close to the frequency range as the NS10.

Like wwjd says, what about room setup, recording media etc. They are great for checking mids and highs, yeah. I've been going through my music collection and the mid/high detail is great, i'm hearing things i never have before.

I can't say they are 'better'. I preferred them but i wanted a more mid forward monitor than my CX5s. To me, the hs80 was the most complete monitor for under £500. I guess i'll have to add the sub but for now looks like i'll be mixing the bass in a node.

I have to have mine on stands away from the wall to get the best out of them. The have room control switches on the back but you'll lose even more bass.

If you want something for fine tuning maybe check out the MSP5s, i've read great things about them.

i much prefer the 50's over the 80s series, but the 80s are still great in their own way.

while the 50's do not offer as much low end, i feel that these are much closer to the feel of my old ns10s, and the low mids seem more clear on the smaller speakers as well. I have headphones for checking the low end anyhow!


either way, i love these.

by the way, wrt "cardboard" woofers, some of the best performing woofers ever made have paper cones. I wouldn't call them cardboard per se but yea, fair enough to call them that I suppose. in the industry they're called paper however.

poly woofers can be great but have zero breakup at higher frequencies so need lower crossover points for the tweeter (I'm really generalizing here but historically that's how it was).

poly and paper DO sound very different - but poly is heavier so actually has more error on transients than paper does, and it doesn't flex so can't get into higher frequencies without distortion where paper can get into mids very effectively with the right design and even be full range with very complex flex points designed into the driver.

don't dismiss paper (not that anyone was, but there are ppl who assume poly must be better and newer tech must be better. with woofer cones, that is actually not true, aside from kevlar maybe).

So is it just me that's hearing an improved bass response? There seems to be a certain sweet spot to really hear the low end. On d'n'b it is like having a sub and I don't think it's a room mode cause the frequency response doesn't fluctuate at all.

Sent from my U20i using Gearslutz.com App

sorry bout that, wasnt wanting to be sarcastic heheh =P and i totally agree with you on this-----> the way I hear changes according to my energy level and mood. If I make decisions concerning frequency balance later in the evening, in the morning I will find too much high frequency in the mix. The reason why it's best to make decisions quickly and minimize the soloing of tracks is that the ear quickly adapts. Same for why the last part overdubbed always gets mixed too loudly in the rough mix for the day.

the exact same thing happens to me....i have to come back to my mixes a few times even on different days to make a collective opinion on freqency balance etc etc.

Who knows how valid that impression is because different speakers will react differently in a given space - especially in the low end. <-------- exactly why this whole mastering thing is so subjective and not a real black and white science. with all the variences in consumer end gear,and the room where that end user is going to listen to that gear in....god how could anyone with any equippment make the "right" choices? it all becomes such a mixed up grey area lol. it almost seems like mastering is an educated guess, "shot in the dark process". but i will admit, there definatly are some core norm methods...because i have some cds, that just sound awesome in ANY end system i play them in..and hopefully ill be lucky enough to stumble upon the right equasion of gear and room and knowledge to get that sound in my lifetime....in particular...im interested in how the hell they get bass and sub bass so deep and loud in some songs and all the while, its in perfect controll...and all the other sounds come thru clear. ive made some good mixes but ive never been able to figure out how they do that with bass,(im not just talking about the normal amount of bass in any given song, im talking about the bass that is potent, thick, and rattles your bone marrow yet never distorts....) how they take it to the extream like that where theres such an EPIC amount of one type of frequecny, yet it doesnt muddy the others, and still controll it so perfectly.

this +100

excellent post/response

Try plugging the ports on HS80m - you will hear it and love it!

I'm a beginner, and I've been looking at the HS80Ms for a good set of monitors to upgrade from KRK Rokit 5s (which are awful). I was set on them until I was finality able to sit in a room with them. It sounded great, but the problem was that they seemed less solidly built than Mackie MR8s in comparison. The MR8s actually sounded better, but it sounded too good, not like a monitor suitable for mixing. But, I really don't have the experience to judge here.

In the 500-700 price range, HS80M seems to be the choice on this board, but what else is out there? What competes, or what is the "top of the line" monitor in that range? I do prefer a 7/8" driver.

Don't give out the secrets!!!!!!!!
:(

HS80M's are SOLID and lasted my 4 1/2 years!

Run to audiomidi.com they have DSM1 and DSM2 are $400 for the 6" and $500 for the 8". amazing deal!

Don't think 8" is better in any way, most time the low end is in the way, and they sound muddier. The HS80M are a great value (I owned them til last month, I finally grabbed NS10's)! If you do buy the HS80's Look at the suggestion 2 posts up. Great advice. Remember low end is normally just 2 instrument (Bass and Kick). You have to be able to mix and make decisions on the other 20,30,40 tracks!
The JBL2300 series 8" is a very very good monitor. My opinion.
Depends on the music your doing aswell.

Other monitors to consider,
Dynoaudio BM5a, Mackie HR624 mkl or mkll.

I have HS50s and love 'em. I can't speak to the NS10 comparison but I can tell you that you will get no bass out of them UNLESS you mount them on a proper pair of stands. The difference is night and day. If you just throw them on top of the console or desk or shelf, you're not hearing what they do.

Regarding HS80M ...

Curious what connectors are people using ... specifically BALANCED or UN-Balanced.

I'm finding a significant difference ... and NOW have the monitors running
UN-Balanced using Monster Standard 100 cables ... and they sound excellent
in this pro designed/ treated mastering room.

Don't you lose too much of the low end or are you using a sub? Plugging the monitor ports is a secret now?! I haven't tried that yet but i tried setting the room mode to -2db a few nights ago and that really opened up the mids, i am close to a wall though!

Are you saying unbalanced cables are better?! I use balanced to eliminate any interference, my laptops psu creates pretty bad ground noise. Vandamme mic cable witn neutrik connectors.

I did not from what I hear and use no sub. ported they went 30 Hz being placed close ro the wall, now I can hear 30Hz too, although the phase is just linear (just ridiculous!) and so close to what i hear in headphones and no resonance from port is muddying the low-bass. Layering kicks and envelope controlling is like 10x better, I started hearing thetexture of the string sound on some upright bass and so on.
Freak the ports! Closed box for life!