Yamaha HS5

Yamaha monitors tell it like it is

When your fans hear your new album for the first time, it will be an intricate cocktail of sound. In the studio, however, you want to hear the mix straight-up with no artificial sweeteners. Yamaha's legendary studio monitors use an advanced design to produce sonically pure playback. Enjoy accurate imaging and high resolution while maintaining a flat response that tells you exactly what you have, so you can decide what needs to happen next.

The 5" woofer in the Yamaha HS5 uses a large magnet to produce well-defined mids and low-end response, whether you're recording the thunder of a kick drum or the rich, subtle tonality of a cello recital. The 1" dome tweeter delivers superb clarity and efficiency, with high-frequency response up to 30,000 Hz, where vital overtones live. The woofer and tweeter are driven by separate high-performance amplifiers to ensure smooth, honest response at every volume level.

The HS5 is ideal for smaller studio setups. If you're mixing bass-heavy music, enhance your system with Yamaha's studio-grade HS8S subwoofer.

The architecture of accurate sound

When you're building a track from scratch, the devil is in the details. Yamaha draws on decades of deep experience to ensure that no unwanted noise creeps into your pristine studio sound. They borrowed a three-way mitred joint technique from their piano design to enhance durability and eliminate unwanted resonance in the HS line's solid MDF cabinet. The rear port has been painstakingly re-engineered to eliminate any chuffing from misdirected air. The control panel on the back of each monitor is clearly marked and intuitive.

Connections and controls

Each monitor has a built-in XLR connection and a 1/4" TRS jack that accepts balanced or unbalanced signals, for connection flexibility. If your room isn't as sonically perfect as you'd like it to be, use the room control switch to roll off frequencies below 500Hz by -2 or -4 dB, or you can just leave it flat. If it's the high end that's bouncing around and driving you batty, the high trim switch gives ±2dB of flexibility above 2kHz.