Yamaha HS5 Powered Studio Monitor Pair

Description

The Yamaha HS5 is a highly respected 5-inch active (powered) studio monitor, part of Yamaha’s popular HS series. It’s the most compact full-range monitor in the line (excluding the HS4 and subwoofer), making it an excellent choice for smaller home studios, project studios, or anyone with limited space who still demands accurate and uncolored sound for mixing and music production. Like the larger HS models, the HS5 aims to provide a true and honest representation of your audio, allowing you to make better mixing decisions.

Key Features and Highlights:

• 5-inch White Cone Woofer: The HS5 features a 5-inch cone woofer, immediately identifiable by its signature white color. This driver is designed for precise mid-range and bass response. Yamaha prioritizes large, carefully selected magnets and an advanced magnetic circuit design for a tightly controlled flux field, resulting in smooth and dynamic response across its frequency range.
• 1-inch Dome Tweeter with Waveguide: Equipped with a 1-inch dome tweeter housed within a specially designed thick waveguide. This waveguide is crucial for controlling the dispersion of high frequencies, creating an optimized and wide sweet spot and improving stereo imaging accuracy. The tweeter itself is designed for smooth, distortion-free high-end reproduction up to 30 kHz.
• Bi-Amplified Design: The HS5 is a bi-amplified monitor, meaning it has separate, dedicated Class AB power amplifiers for the low-frequency (woofer) and high-frequency (tweeter) drivers. This design ensures efficient power delivery, minimizes intermodulation distortion, and perfectly matches the amplifiers to the specific characteristics of each driver.
  • Total Power: 70 watts of power (45 watts for the LF driver, 25 watts for the HF driver). This provides sufficient headroom for accurate nearfield listening.
• Low Resonance Enclosure Design: The cabinet is constructed from high-density MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) with a damped acoustic response, specifically engineered to eliminate unwanted resonance that could color the sound. Yamaha uses a traditional three-way mitered-joint technique, borrowed from architectural design, to firmly anchor the corners and further enhance durability and acoustic integrity.
• Noise Reduction Technology (Vortex Sound Control): Yamaha has implemented a unique port design to minimize unwanted noise from the rear-firing bass port. By visually analyzing airflow and optimizing the port’s shape, this technology reduces air vibrations and port noise by up to 6dB, resulting in a cleaner and clearer low-end.
• Room Control and High-Trim Response Controls: These rear-panel switches allow you to fine-tune the monitor’s response to adapt to your specific room acoustics:
  • ROOM CONTROL: A three-way switch (0, -2 dB, -4 dB below 500 Hz) helps compensate for the bass boost that often occurs when speakers are placed close to walls or in corners.
  • HIGH TRIM: A three-way switch (+/- 2 dB at HF) provides flexible control over the high-frequency response, allowing you to adjust the treble to your preference or room.
• Versatile Inputs: The HS5 offers professional input options for seamless integration into various studio setups:
  • Balanced XLR input: For connecting to professional audio interfaces or mixers with balanced XLR outputs.
  • 1/4″ TRS Balanced/Unbalanced input: This versatile jack accepts both balanced (TRS) and unbalanced (TS) signals.
• Frequency Response: Offers a frequency response of 54 Hz to 30 kHz (-10dB) or 74 Hz to 24 kHz (-3dB). While the 5-inch woofer means it won’t have the deep sub-bass of larger monitors like the HS8, it provides a solid and accurate foundation for mixing in most home studio environments.
• Iconic Aesthetic: The black cabinet with the distinctive white woofer cone is instantly recognizable and has become a standard look in studios worldwide.

Who is the Yamaha HS5 for?

• Home Studio Owners with Limited Space: Ideal for small rooms or desktop setups where larger monitors might be acoustically problematic or physically too big.
• Beginning and Intermediate Music Producers/Engineers: Providing a reliable, accurate, and uncolored listening environment for learning and making critical mixing decisions.
• Voiceover Artists & Podcasters: For clear and consistent monitoring of spoken word.
• Anyone who values accuracy over flattery: If your goal is to hear your audio precisely as it is, without artificial enhancements, the HS5 excels.
• Secondary Reference Monitors: Even in larger studios, they can serve as excellent secondary monitors to check how a mix translates on smaller systems.

Considerations:

• Limited Bass Extension: While impressive for a 5-inch monitor, the HS5 won’t reproduce the very lowest sub-bass frequencies (below 50-60 Hz) with the same authority as larger monitors. For genres with heavy sub-bass (e.g., electronic, hip-hop) or for critical mastering, adding a dedicated subwoofer (like the Yamaha HS8S) would be beneficial.
• Rear-Ported Design: Despite Yamaha’s noise reduction technology, the rear-firing port means optimal placement requires some distance from walls to avoid bass buildup and muddy sound.
• Room Acoustics: Even with the room control features, proper acoustic treatment in your listening space will significantly improve the performance of any studio monitor, including the HS5.
• “Uncolored” Sound: While a strength for mixing, some users find the HS series’ flat and neutral sound less “exciting” for casual listening compared to consumer-grade speakers or monitors with a more hyped frequency response.