Very good overall performance for the money
Written: Dec 28 '00 (Updated Dec 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: musical overall sound, good bass and midrange clarity
Cons: midrange-to-treble integration a little rough, treble a little tinny sometimes
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| dorkus's Full Review: Yamaha YST-MS50 Speaker System |
I consider myself a fairly serious audiophile, being a musician at one time and having built and modified my own gear. As such, I think my perspective on computer speakers is probably a bit different from the average computer computer user. Although the proliferation of MP3's has made good-sounding music on a PC more of a priority, I still feel that the vast majority of so-called "multimedia speakers" are poor excuses for sound reproduction. Virtually all of them are shoddily-constructed, boomy, unmusical... just plain bad. They are geared towards reproducing game noise, sound effects, and the occassional pop tune on MP3. Judging by their popularity, they suit most people just fine, but fall pretty short of what I consider anything near high fidelity.
So this past year I was not looking forward to getting a new set of computer speakers. Over the years I've actually accummulated 3 pairs of Yamaha speakers: the original YST-M10, the YST-M8, and the YST-M15. While they all have limited frequency response and are pretty cheaply constructed (what do you expect for less than $100 a pair), I feel that they sound fairly musical for what they are. They sound more dimensional than other brands I've heard (Altec Lansing and Cambridge Soundworks included), with decent imaging and a fairly smooth presentation. While they have no low bass or high treble to speak of, they hint at a fairly natural timbre in the midrange. I've always appreciated that Yamaha didn't try to make them do things they couldn't do; they just gave them a shade of bass response using their Active Servo technology, employed a decent spruce wood pulp cone, and put them in reasonably-sized enclosures. Best of all, they included two inputs and a subwoofer output on their most recent models, something I really appreciate. The tone control is also quite usable. This unassumming design is the closest thing in the computer-speaker arena you'll find to the "simpler-is-better" audiophile philosophy, so I've traditionally made Yamaha my choice.
Recently, I got a great deal on the YST-MS30 (also reviewed by myself on epinions), the MS50's smaller sibling in the line, and got it as a present for a friend. I was pleasantly surprised with them; at low volumes, they are very musical, with a nice clear midrange and rhythmic, clean bass with excellent pitch definition. Best of all, they seem to sound better and better with use; at first they sounded a bit dry and weak, but with break-in they've been maturing quite nicely.
My excitement with the MS30 reassured me that Yamaha was still building products that were inline with what I was looking for in a computer speaker, and prompted me to buy the MS50. So I bought a pair for $90 from buy.com (unfortunately I missed the great rebate deal earlier this year), connected them, and fired up some MP3's played through my PC's SoundBlaster Live card.
My initial impression - wow, lots of bass from that 6.5" subwoofer. Bass rhythm, pace, and pitch very good, though a little disappointed that it wasn't as good as the smaller and cheaper MS30. I think the smaller MS30, with its 5" "subwoofer", acts as a better woofer in the midbass than the MS50, and as such it sounds fantastic in the 80 - 200Hz range, even better than this model. It doesn't play nearly as loud or as deep as this model though. Midrange was also quite good, typical yamaha. I was a little disappointed with the region in the upper-midrange to treble though; unlike the MS30 or the other non-subwoofered models which has a single 3" full-range driver, this model uses both a 3" midrange and a separate tweeter. In theory this is better, but getting a midrange and tweeter to match up is tough, and in this case they don't quite match up. The low treble sounds slightly muted, while the highest treble is a little hissy. Cymbals sound a bit too bright and lacking body - you hear the sizzle afterwards, but not the initial "whump" sound of the two cymbals hitting. This made listening to pop songs a little fatiguing, as the lack of lower treble makes you turn the volume up higher, but then the high treble gets too hot. Also, the transition between subwoofer and satellite has a bit of a hole in it making the lower midrange lack substance at times, but not nearly as badly as other 3-piece systems i've heard.
After a couple weeks, the sound seems to balance out a little better, and I'm pretty happy with the overall performance. Pop songs like U2's "One" have a nice feel to them, with a good combination of underlying bass rhythm and vocal leads. The sound is on the warm side for computer speakers, a very good thing I must add. Harder stuff like Rage Against the Machine or video game explosions don't sound quite as exciting as they might on other speakers, but sound very good nonetheless. Bass extension is good, and the overall sound is quit clear. Even classical music, normally the bane of cheap speakers, is very listenable and open-sounding. Oh yeah, and these things play LOUD fairly cleanly too. With 80 watts of total power, they will definitely shake your desk.
Feature-wise, this is a fairly bare-bones model. Like other Yamahas, it has 2 line inputs (very handy), but no tone control. I'm a bit ambivalent about this omission, as i usually find tone controls to distort the sound more than help, but sometimes they are useful to help equalize the brightness of different music sources. There is a volume control knob (a little too small, hard to grab) on the right satellite, as well as a handy headphone jack that works fairly well. A subwoofer level control is on the subwoofer (duh). Thankfully, there is no 3D "enhancement" junk or SRS simulated surround to screw up the sound. Overall build quality is decent, with a decently heavy wood subwoofer enclosure and standard plastic satellites, which are a little on the large side for a 3-piece system. The manual is basic and gets the job done.
If you're wondering why i rate it 4 stars after what seems like less than an enthusiastic endorsement, it's because other speakers of its type in this price range sound positively dreadful. I've never liked the Altec models - too much bass, too little rhythm, not enough treble, muddy midrange. I haven't been a big fan of Cambridge either - they sound good on the surface, but never get me really into the groove of the song, something detached and artificial about them. While the Yamahas aren't what I would call "accurate" speakers, they still continue what seems like a tradition of no-frills musical integrity. They image better than other speakers, have an exceptionally smooth midrange. After a while you don't notice their deficiencies and just listen to the music. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a decent full-range computer speaker that'll work well with music as well as booms and bangs.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dorkus
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Member: tasty donuts
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 4 members
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