<font color='#000000'>Alright well heres my crack at a mini review of the Yamaha NS-HX Loudspeakers I deceided to purchase with the aid of a few helpful members on these forums. First off heres my system as it currently exists:
Yamaha HTR-5590 receiver
Yamaha DVD-CX1 dvd player
Yamaha CDC-685 cd player
Panamax 5100 line conditioner
The speakers consist of two 8hx's(mains), three 2hx's(rear surrounds), and one c7hx(center). All connections are of the plain monster variety. The only slightly fancy wires I have would be the Z1R's that I have for the front three speakers.
But there all laid out in quite a clean fashion.
NS-8HX mains:
These are definatly the jewel of the system. They consist of two 8" woofers a 5" midrange and a 1" or so tweeter. The cabinets are made of 1" baffle board with canadian maple veneer. Mine are stained cherry but glossy black is also available. Like all of the HX's they can be bi-wired or bi-amped and feature yamaha's waveguide horn. Overall I would say the speakers are very well made. They weigh in at over 70 pounds and have a great solid feel when you give there cabinets a soft knock. What first impressed me about the HX's in a small stereo shop was how well they imaged and how clear the tweeters where. Thankfully the 8hx's are no different in my home. I would say that these are the speakers strongest suits... at least to my ears. As far as frequency response goes I would say the 8hx's are quite neutral although I have not tested this yet. If the 8hx mains had a weakness I would say its that they are abit power hungry. My HTR-5590 really dosent seem up to the task of playing them at high volume for any amount of time. I was going to play around with Bi-Amping them but I have a DSP-A1 that will be booting the HTR out very soon ... so Ill see how that goes then make a decsion about what to do.
NS-C7HX Center:
This is the larger of the two center channels yamaha offers in its HX lineup. It consists of two 6" woofers and the same tweeter used in the 8hx's. Its made in the same mannor as the 8hx's and weighs in at 33 pounds. The size of the speaker is quite large and clumbsy for my small TV ... but ill be changing that soon enough
Yamaha claims the speaker hits down to 45hz I havent tested it with an spl meter but I hooked this speaker up by itself put abit of rap music on and was pleasantly supprised so I have set it up as LARGE. One of the main reasons I went with the larger center channel speaker is very poor experiences with previous centers just not cutting it compared to the mains. By this I mean poor freq. responses, bad timbre matching etc. This time around I am very pleased .. in fact this is the first system I really enjoy listening to music in multi channel modes. This speaker does its job of blending with the mains very well so well I definatly can justify the extra cash spent on the c7hx over the c5hx.
NS-2HX Surrounds:
Of all of the speakers in the HX lineup these are the cheapest and smallest. They feature a 5" woofer and the same tweeter and waveguide as the others. While they are made in the same way as the other speakers they do not use the same 1" baffle. They opt for smaller 3/4" baffle instead and have an odd dual front ported design. That being said they still feel like there built like little rocks
Of all of the HX's I would say that these are the only ones that would not be suitable for use as mains without a great sub and some good tweaking. Still they manage to belt out crystal clear highs and image beautifully.
Overall I am very happy I decided to go with the speakers I did and not just settle for a cheaper set of Yamaha's that I was looking into getting. All of the speakers in the system blend perfectly and the system is great for either stereo or multi channel listening. My hats off to all on these forums for helping me make a decsion I am happy with. Feel free to comment or ask questions and ill be sure to tell you guys how the DSP-A1 sounds in my system compared to my HTR-5590</font>
