marqueemoon
Gimme indie rock!
I guess now that I have two pairs of these (YSM-1s and now the smaller YSM-2s) they can stop being my little secret. Sadly, these passive versions are discontinued now. They were cheap to begin with (I paid $225 for the YSM-1s brand spankin' new a decade ago), and they often go for very cheap on the used market. I paid $69 + shipping for the YSM-2s. Here is a little info from Yorkville's site on the YSM-1. There's a later passive version with no grille and nearly-identical specs.
Yorkville is a Canadian pro audio company (these were manufactured in Canada). The passive YSMs were their first studio monitor offerings, and unlike a lot of products in their price range at the time (Alesis, KRK), these are actually quite flat and uncolored-sounding. The soft dome tweeter is pretty impressive, and the YSM-1 is rated down to 40 Hz +/- 3 dB. These have a lovely amount of air to the sound that stops short of being fatiguing. I have yet to find a piece of music, from chamber music to punk rock that didn't sound believable on them. While the YSM-2 is only rated down to 70 Hz, I think they will do just fine in our living room setup.
In shopping for new living room speakers I listened to a few "affordable" monitor-style speakers in shops as well as some nicer used high end speakers (Epos, Snell, B&W, Totem, Paradigm, Usher, Mark & Daniel, Vandersteen), and while all had positive qualities, I can't say that any of these (in the $400-$1200 a pair range) were significantly better than the Yorkvilles. For the money, it was really a no-brainer to snag the YSM-2s.
Shortcomings on the YSM-1 IMO would be less-then-astounding imaging (although the clear and extended high end does a good job of allowing the speakers to "disappear"), and a little trouble handling complex transient material in the low end. For me the low end is a tradeoff I can live with. Frankly, with my typically moderate listening levels I find speakers with ultra-controlled bass response a bit boring. The harmonic content in the high end means I can still easily tell what the double bass and bass drum are doing, and the cabinets are solid enough that there are minimal weird bass resonances.
There's a part of me that wishes these were more attractive (black ash vinyl, woo!), but looking at them reminds me that I shouldn't care what they look like. That said, if anyone here has a white pair (according to the specs they were offered in white) they're interested in parting with, let me know!
Seriously, if you have the chance to give these a listen I highly recommend it.
Now to convince my wife that we should buy a second turntable with the money I just saved us. :scratch2:
Yorkville is a Canadian pro audio company (these were manufactured in Canada). The passive YSMs were their first studio monitor offerings, and unlike a lot of products in their price range at the time (Alesis, KRK), these are actually quite flat and uncolored-sounding. The soft dome tweeter is pretty impressive, and the YSM-1 is rated down to 40 Hz +/- 3 dB. These have a lovely amount of air to the sound that stops short of being fatiguing. I have yet to find a piece of music, from chamber music to punk rock that didn't sound believable on them. While the YSM-2 is only rated down to 70 Hz, I think they will do just fine in our living room setup.
In shopping for new living room speakers I listened to a few "affordable" monitor-style speakers in shops as well as some nicer used high end speakers (Epos, Snell, B&W, Totem, Paradigm, Usher, Mark & Daniel, Vandersteen), and while all had positive qualities, I can't say that any of these (in the $400-$1200 a pair range) were significantly better than the Yorkvilles. For the money, it was really a no-brainer to snag the YSM-2s.
Shortcomings on the YSM-1 IMO would be less-then-astounding imaging (although the clear and extended high end does a good job of allowing the speakers to "disappear"), and a little trouble handling complex transient material in the low end. For me the low end is a tradeoff I can live with. Frankly, with my typically moderate listening levels I find speakers with ultra-controlled bass response a bit boring. The harmonic content in the high end means I can still easily tell what the double bass and bass drum are doing, and the cabinets are solid enough that there are minimal weird bass resonances.
There's a part of me that wishes these were more attractive (black ash vinyl, woo!), but looking at them reminds me that I shouldn't care what they look like. That said, if anyone here has a white pair (according to the specs they were offered in white) they're interested in parting with, let me know!
Seriously, if you have the chance to give these a listen I highly recommend it.
Now to convince my wife that we should buy a second turntable with the money I just saved us. :scratch2:
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