Yamaha HS5 Powered Studio Monitor

I’m not enough of an audiophile to give you hot takes about soundstage and frequencies and all those other words that I sometimes understand but have a hell of a time finding the minor differences between similar products. But they sound great! I’m running these through a UA Volt 2 into my M4 MacBook Air and they drive some excellent noises into my ear holes. I chose these because they had a lot of traction online with people looking for affordable studio monitors for newbs like me getting into music production. I haven’t compared these to other models (HS5/HS8) or comparable monitors in this price range for my use, but I really do like them.

I thought I must have had faulty connections to my past speakers (maudio junk) because the upgrade to these make every song sound new and alive, no joke. There's rumors that your ears must adjust, yeah it's true, but adjusting to AMAZING isn't tough. You'll notice yourself listening to things quieter at lower volume levels because multimedia speakers drown out the important details for the sake of coloring crappy sound, like in video games. Amazing clarity and stereo width, they are well worth another $50-100 to avoid cheaper junk. These are industry standards. P.S. the 4" are PLENTY loud, if you're in a large to small room composing at a desk workstation, these are ACE. I'd do the 5" if you're in a small studio where the speakers are a bar further from you. No reason to blast your ears off!

Freakin awesome. Have had many top end brands to use as computer speakers. From 5.1 etc. these are the best sounding two speaker setup for a computer ever! Awesome and underpriced in my opinion!

Setup was easy. I needed to buy two guitar type cables to connect them to my audio to computer device. That's the professional connection. The speakers looked small when I opened the box, but they handle bass well. They are plenty loud enough for close use. They are very good. I am very happy.

Tried Edifier, Yamaha HS3 & Presonus speakers before I landed on this studio monitor that’s supposed to be the same wattage as HS4. Studio Monitors sound flatter the way the supposed to, definitely could hear slightly higher frequency than Edifier. Even though Edifier sounded great with music. HS3 has a persist hissing noise with no input, tired with ground isolation plugs and moved the speaker to different outlet and had the same result. Thought I was picky until HS4 arrived, no noise this time in standby mode. HS4 also sounded just right in a 12’ x 12’ room.

Very nice bass and sound for this size, definitely needs a sub to help with low ends, but it holds itself together mostly. Have very good clarity even when blasting them at full volume, The white color is very nice and looks great. The build is sturdy and feels real.

Amazing sound. What an upgrade. I was using JBL 104 PC speakers for years. Those are supposed to be decent speakers. The Yamaha HS4 just blew them away out of the box. I have the HS4 speakers connected to a DAC AMP combo, and I'm amazing by the clarity of sound. I LOVE these so far! I've only had them for hours but the sound quality just using Spotify to play regular music is a pleasure.

THESE. ARE. SO. RAD. ( I got the HS7's FYI ). I reference any other speakers off of the pair of Bowers and WIlkins 684 floorstanders that I have. Keep in mind that these cost half the price of those and I am just as impressed, all things considered. While these don't produce as "big" of a sound and can't pump out as much volume due their much smaller size, they sound just as pristine to my ears. Now, don't get me wrong, these can fill a bedroom sized room with plenty of sound to satisfy a reasonable listener. Especially if they are placed within a few feet of your ears as I believe they are intended to be placed. That is where they sound best. I have mine about 3 feet from each ear and it is good. When I first fired these up they sounded a little bright or maybe even harsh on higher treble end. Either I got used to that or they broke in nicely, because they sound just right now after about a hundred hours of use at low to medium volume. At lower volume they tend to lack a little bottom end, and at very high volume the clarity suffers and things start getting a little distorted and muddy. At medium to medium-high volume is where these really shine. If you're using these as studio monitors as they are intended to be used, this volume range is where you'd want to be listening anyways, for various reasons. For one, you don't want to listen at loud volumes for long periods because it will fatigue your ears to the point that listening is longer pleasurable and probably not as objective as is necessary. Also you can damage your ears. You only get one set of ears. Once they're messed up, that's it. I already have some ringing in my ears from my younger days and wish I could go back and do those rock concerts over with ear plugs. Another reason is that if you mix with your speakers at high volume, it won't translate well to anyone who ever listens to what you're mixing at lower volumes. So if your sounds are ever going to be played anywhere besides a dance club, this is a legit reason. So that's that. Right there in the middle of the volume range these puppies are capable of very nice sounding audio. I've heard other people wonder about these as an option general music listening speakers, like you would with a good set of hifi speakers. On top of using them as studio monitors, I use them for this purpose too. I like listening to all of the music I listen to on them. If you aren't the kind of person that feels like Beats by Dre are the greatest sounding audio experience ever on the face of all of the universe, I'd bet you'll enjoy these. These will not blast your eardrums will ungodly amounts of bass and treble very loudly like Beats do. They will, however, show you a crystal clear image of what your music really sounds like. And if it' good music, it'll probably sound very good on these. Also, on top of of all this, they look great, and the finish on the exterior is pretty durable too. I dropped a hammer or something rather on top of one of them and it didn't even leave a mark. TLDR; I love them and highly recommend them is what this all boils down to If you can fit these in you budget, do it. Really one of the more satisfying purchases I've made. There may be better out there, but not at this price. //end rant.