Yamaha NS1000 crossover Tweaks

Hi Patrik

To get access to the L-pads in the NS-2000 do the following: On the sides of the silvery adjustment knobs on the front there are two tiny holes of ca 2 mm. Use the ends of two clips. Put the ends in the holes and simply pull out the knob. You will now see the shaft of the L-pad and a nut fixing the L-pad to the cabinet. With the tweeter removed hold on to the back of the L-pad and remove the nut using a tall socket wrench. You can now pull out the L-pad through the hole for the tweeter and do the spraying. Before putting back the tweeter make sure that you also clean and spray the contacts for the tweeter. Repeat the procedure for the midrange element. I hope this helps and I can assure you that you will enjoy this "upgrade".

decca4

Thanks for the advice!
Will the L-pads go back into a defined position when replacing them, so that the settings will continue to correlate between left and right speaker? (As opposed to rotate freely when replacing them again.)

Tweeter, mid and bass are all soldered in, BTW.
 
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contact cleaner recommendations

Hi folks-

Well, this recent chat about contact cleaners got me thinking....

That is something I didn't do with my L-pads, clean/lube them. I see Kontakt-60 recommended. Not easily available in the states.

I do have a can of MG Chemicals Super Contact Cleaner (with poly phenyl ether). Would that suffice?

Still enjoying my NS-1000M's!:D

-Kent
 
Hi folks-

Well, this recent chat about contact cleaners got me thinking....

That is something I didn't do with my L-pads, clean/lube them. I see Kontakt-60 recommended. Not easily available in the states.

I do have a can of MG Chemicals Super Contact Cleaner (with poly phenyl ether). Would that suffice?

Still enjoying my NS-1000M's!:D

-Kent
Hi Kent, I remember some talk about Cleaners brands but I can't remember where. Variable L-Pads here.
 
L-pads

Thanks for the advice!
Will the L-pads go back into a defined position when replacing them, so that the settings will continue to correlate between left and right speaker? (As opposed to rotate freely when replacing them again.)

Tweeter, mid and bass are all soldered in, BTW.

Hi Patrik

To retain the original calibration I suggest that you first take a note of your current setting of the knobs then turn the knobs fully clock wise (or counter clock wise) and take a note of where the little black dot on the knob is pointing. Now pull the knobs straight out without any twisting motion. After the cleaning procedure you now turn the shaft of the L-pads fully clock wise and put them back in the cabinet. Now put the knob back and make sure that the black dot points in the direction it had just before removing it. There are steps or recesses on the shaft so it will be evident if you have put it back in its original position or not. Now you can turn the knob back to your previously chosen position. If you go about it this way I don't think that there is any risk of failure but please don't hesitate to ask again if anything in my description was unclear.

When spraying the L-pads make sure that you twist the shaft back and forth 5-10 times so that you really clean the contact area.

My tweeter and mid were not soldered so I guess I had a slightly easier task.

Please revert with the result.

Good Luck!

decca4
 
Hi Patrik

To retain the original calibration I suggest that you first take a note of your current setting of the knobs then turn the knobs fully clock wise (or counter clock wise) and take a note of where the little black dot on the knob is pointing. Now pull the knobs straight out without any twisting motion. After the cleaning procedure you now turn the shaft of the L-pads fully clock wise and put them back in the cabinet. Now put the knob back and make sure that the black dot points in the direction it had just before removing it. There are steps or recesses on the shaft so it will be evident if you have put it back in its original position or not. Now you can turn the knob back to your previously chosen position. If you go about it this way I don't think that there is any risk of failure but please don't hesitate to ask again if anything in my description was unclear.

When spraying the L-pads make sure that you twist the shaft back and forth 5-10 times so that you really clean the contact area.

My tweeter and mid were not soldered so I guess I had a slightly easier task.

Please revert with the result.

Good Luck!

decca4

Many thanks for the advice, which was very clear indeed!
I'll do it some day soon, when I'm able to crank the volume up to properly to judge the "before and after" result!
Regards
 
Very interesting!
I've been thinking about making some surround speakers to go with the NS-2000. I planned to make them small though, with puny woofers. Any more data on those NS-1000 derivates?
Certainly, though without my original calculations i can only make a seriously educated guess as to certain things ;)

The enclosure itself is a 4th order bandpass for the bass. The original 12" Yamaha driver is inside, as the whole enclosure is 36mm thick MDF (2 x 18mm sheet) the bass driver is sitting at about a 45 degree angle. The sealed portion of the box is approximately 18L, braced & filled with teased out rockwool, this gives a sealed box bass resonance of about 55Hz (would need a 22L box if using no stuffing). The front ported chamber is 10L in volume & has some acoustic foam for a little damping, it's tuned to 55Hz. The overall response is about -3db at 29Hz & 110Hz.

The bass driver is directly driven from one channel of a stereo poweramp with an active filter driving it, rolloff is -3db lowpass @ 110hz. The 7" Audax bassmidrange is connected to the bass output of the original Yamaha crossover (it's located in the stand). Took me an age to find a quality driver that'd work properly on the xover at the right sensitivity & with the correct impedance etc.

Obviously the other mid & tweeter are fed from the Yam xover.

There is a panel on the rear of the enclosure to facilitate fitting & removal of the bass driver, i had to remove the metal grill on the bass drivers so i could get the driver to fit. It's all pretty tight in there to be honest as the total enclosure volume is less than the original NS1000M :D

The port (100mm) has an 18mm flare at each end to lower port noise (never heard any myself & i'm known to crank things as the evening progresses ;))

Overall enclosure dimensions are 64cm H, 32.5cm W, 43.5cm D

Just ran that lot through WinISD, i was surprisingly accurate with my memory :D Not only that, i was pretty accurate with my maths as i didn't have WinISD when i designed it lol.

Yamaha Bandpass.jpg

Bests :)
 
Hi Decca, You asked me my experience with modding the x-over. A few pages back (mid 2009) I posted a picture of the new parts. I'm using PIO's as capacitors:
-I've got sprague/vitamin Q for the highs,
-Russian (MGB2 and K40Y) for the mids,
-Japanese ASC for the lows.
I also replaced all the wiring by tin/copper and replaced all the coils by aircore coils.
At last I replaced the wool by Twaron.

The result are very nice: more air around the instruments, better placing, dryer bass, more twinkle.

The only thing I miss is a deep bass. Maybe a bandpass ? I'm trying to collect an extra set of mids so I can experiment. A set of highs of the NS500 are waiting already.
 
Hi HD3

I managed to find you picture of the replacement bits. I am not familiar with any of the capacitors. Some look like they are electrolytic capacitors. Is that the case? If so, do you prefer these to MKP caps?

I am not knowledgeable about damping material so can you please explain why you replaced the original material.

Did you do you mod stepwise or everything at the same time?

If you are looking for midrange units there is an auction at Ebay currently.

Yamaha Midrange JA-0801 NS-1000M NS-1000 NS-2000 (pair) - eBay (item 320500148890 end time Mar-21-10 18:35:25 PDT)

As you are looking for deeper frequencies have you considered building a new larger cabinet?

decca4
 
capacitors

Hi Decca,

The capacitors are paper/oil capacitors. I find the have a better musicality. Vitamin Q are the best but very expensive. The Russians are nice as well, especially for the price.

I did everything at once besides the coil for the bass. It took me some time to find one for a nice price. Actually this one is not exactly the right value (4,3 in stead of 5 mH).

The damping material can give more detail in all fequencies, tighter bass and more room. I noticed this in my other speakers (ACR RP300). Where are you from. Maybe I can send you some.
 
Hi everyone ,
I just got a pair of Ns1000ms and and started tweaking them. In absolute terms. they are bass shy. Otherwise, in stock version can compete with anything else out there today. For the bass ,I found the 4 ohm tap on my 50 watt tube to have the fullest sound. I spent six hours yesterday tweaking with the interior wall damping with 3/4 inch sonic barrier. The Sonic barrier is not as effective as the stock acoustic blanket already in place. These Yamaha engineers Knew what they were doing.
I have caps on the way.

Stan
 
Woofer magnets

Hi Decca

I already did everything, besides the extra magnet. Can you post a picture of this. I'm looking for more and lower lows. Compared to my ACR RP300 I'm missing quite a bit. :(

Hi H3D

I have now measured the magnet that I added to the woofer of the NS-1000. The outer diameter is 120 mm, the inner diameter is 56 mm and the hight of the magnet is 20 mm.
The effect on the sound is remarkable as described i earlier posts. I want to encourage every NS-1000 owner to do the same. I cannot se how you can damage anything by doing this. If you don't like it than just remove the magnet.

When I did the same thing to the NS-2000 I was not impressed at first but after a listening evening when we removed the extra magnet it was clear that adding a magnet to the woofers of the NS-2000 certainly was very beneficial. However the effect was not as dramatical as when it was added to the woofer of the NS-1000. The question was raised if I should try to find a larger magnet and that is what I will do.

If you want to try adding a magnet I suggest that contact some company that repairs speaker units. They will most likely have elements that are beyond repair and that they will throw away. That is what I did and they gave me many to choose from for free. If there is an interest I will try to describe how I separated the magnet from the donor element.

I have taken pictures of the magnet and how it attaches to the woofer but I don't know how to ad my pictures to my posting. Can I please get some assistants?
decca4
 
I have taken pictures of the magnet and how it attaches to the woofer but I don't know how to ad my pictures to my posting. Can I please get some assistants?
decca4
Very easy, instructions to ad your pictures::)
1. Under your Thread - Post Reply.
2. Go to, under Submit Reply/Preview Post
Attach Files - Manage Attachments.
3. Choose - Upload File from your Computer/URL - and Upload - Close this Window.
4. Submit Reply (or Preview Post).
 
For anyone interested in getting hold of all sorts of ceramic magnets i suggest getting to know your local repair shop for PA gear ;) I happen to know the chap that owns & runs a local repair shop & he saves me all the dead drivers that don't get reconed. You'll find a lot of useful magnets that can be extracted from the magnetic circuit.

I'll be honest though & say that i have never found any suitable for the back of the NS1000M bass unit as the rear plate is curved (old boys in cars call it "bumped") to allow more voice coil movement. There is little point in glueing an extra magnet on the rear unless it can contact the steel backplate & be flat against it. With the bowed backplate it'll make it very difficult, i'd like to see the results that decca4 is mentioning, with an inner diameter of 56mm it will only contact the bowed portion of the backplate & thus not have a lot of effect. In my opinion it won't make a lot of difference at all as it needs to be flat against the metal to get the maximum amount of magnetism into the magnetic circuit.


Has anyone ever looked at any of the voice coils on the Yam drivers? There is no former, the things are wound using rectangular wire & glued together to get the maximum use or should i say minimum waste of magnetic gap space. Both woofer, mid & tweeter all use the same system. Not only were Yamaha about 30 years ahead with Beryllium but also with rectangular insulated wire in the voice coils :)
 
Hi you all,

I'm also curious about the pictures. I have a set of woofers lying around, of which one isn't working anymore and both are coated by a previous owner. Maybe I can do something with that.

On the other hand I'm looking for other drivers to mount in the speakers. I'm looking at Thiel C2 220T6 or Scanspeak 25W/8565. Anybody any thoughts on that? I'm looking for lower lows :D
 
First pair!

OK, guys - I am now the owner of a pair of mint condition NS1000M's. Just about perfect exterior and absolutely clean in the sound. I did have to fix the adjustment thingies a bit, but apart from that they're perfect.

I drive them from a high quality USB DAC into a home-brewed pre-amp with a double triode, and then a pair of Quad II's. Compared to my Lowther DX2's (custom ordered with the old PM6 cones) they're not as crisp, but on the other hand the sweet spot is the size of an aircraft carrier compared to the Lowthers'... The Quads have matched NOS GEC KT66's and Siemens EF86's, and the capacitors are nice and modern. Love them!

Thinking about changing the capacitors in the cross-over. However, the results, as they are, are stunning and my guess is that they have just about not been used at all since the original purchase (there was a tag on the back of one of them with a nice description of the materials used, still attached with string and paper tape from the factory).

Anyone else driving their NS1000's with tube amps? Impressions?

Happy!

(sorry about crappy photo quality. My son stole my D2X)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.