Yamaha NS-10M
Yamaha NS-10M Studio
Yamaha NS-10M Pro
(1977 - 2002)

200,000 pairs sold - I'm sure many manufacturers would want to be able to say that.

Developed by Akira Nakamura (among other engineers), as a small bookshelf consumer loudspeaker, the NS-10M became several years after its launch in 1977 a permanent fixture of studio and broadcast monitoring.
A craze, really - but sonically justified. Selling as it did, the NS-10M became a de facto worldwide industry standard for near-field monitoring, thanks to its very precise midband and impulse response, correct power handling and near-perfect imaging.

After having tried every kind of available pulp for the bass cone Yamaha found the wanted sonic material by a photographic paper manufacturer !

Weighing only 3,7g, the JA1801 bass cone reacts very precisely, even to low-level signals, and the magnet assembly can take a lot of power - a lot.
That white visual staple was transplanted into most of Yamaha's other loudspeakers, even if many were just white and not made of said special pulp.

The JA0518A tweeter is a laminated soft dome topped by two different dampening resins ; the three layers are put together through special manufacturing allowing utter precision in alignement. Weighing a tiny 0,6g (edges + dome !), response is swift, precise and controlled.

The filter uses low-distortion componentry and film caps carefully organized for low-loss and maintained low-distortion.
The enclosure is sealed and made of thick 2,5cm wood particles, topped by seven layers of black varnish.

Yamaha made many many many versions of the NS-10 but the main ones are the original NS-10M (1977), the NS-10M Studio (1987) and the NS-10M Pro (c. 1992).

The NS-10M Studio version was launched after some mid 1980s engineers prefered their NS-10 with a layer (or two, or more) of tissue paper in front of the tweeter ! Given the popularity of this (rather... thin) mod', Yamaha revised the and tweeter to adress that (t)issue.
The Studio tweeter has the same dome as the 1977 original but is enclosed in a larger grille with grey damping felt circling the dome at its outside periphery.
It is this version which had the most success and which formed a big crowd of 10M haters and an equally large crowd 10M lovers (among which is me).

The NS-10M Pro has the big terminals of the NS-10M Studio but a front cover like the original 1977 NS-10M, the latter having the typically 1970s' small cable terminals with push/slot system.

The NS-10Mx is a magnetically shielded Studio with a sligthly different tweeter (sans grille or damping felt around it) and a front cover.

An early 1990s version, strictly broadcast, was launched : the NS-40M Studio. It was a bigger NS-10M Studio with two woofers, a medium (with grille) and a different (unprotected) soft dome tweeter. Unlike the 10M series, the 40M Studio was mainly made to be used horizontally and, seemingly, sold very poorly.

Sadly, all good things have an end.
If controversy didn't kill the NS-10M, the great white pulp did : twenty-five years after its inception, due to technical and ecological reasons, its manufacturing couldn't survive 2001. Yamaha however had (and perhaps still has) a fair stock of spares as the suspension of that woofer tends to stiffen with age.

No matter what the haters may say, the 10M Studio was a truly excellent near-field monitor : unjustified success doesn't fare at 200,000 pairs in the broadcast world.

Shown above is the original 1977 NS-10M.

As I sadly have no proper catalog for any of the later versions, hifi-do will help a little :
> NS-10M
> NS-10M Studio
> NS-10M Pro
> NS-10MC
> NS-10Mx
> NS-40M Studio
> JA0518A tweeter
> JA1801 woofer

...and for a few technically unrelated marketing lookalikes :
> NS-10MT
> NS-10MM (black)
> NS-10MM (natural)
> NS-3Mx

A more tangible mod' consists of taking away the damping wool and placing Deflex panels on the inside sides, top and bottom.

Providing you don't intend to use them as PA system for an arena, paired with a Marantz SM-80 for instance, a properly preserved (and Deflex-equipped) NS-10M Studio is capable of true high-end musical reproduction : clean, clear, wide and controlled.

A 2007 Grammy Award for Yamaha.