Yamaha "EAR" speakers

[scuba]

These have got to be some of the most interesting speakers I have seen in quite a while. I've not had much luck finding anything on them on the net. Does anyone out there have any knowledge and or experience with these. I suspect they did not work out too well as nobody else has jumped on this band wagon and Yamaha hasn't made any since.

 

[scuba]

Note to self. Search Audiokarma before posting on Audiokarma.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=330872
Oh well..... Live and learn I guess.

 

[dc270]

Now that IS original..........never heard them refered to as "ear" speakers, but you are right- they kinda do look like a big ear of sorts!

I suspect this was not one of Yamaha more succesful designs, unique YES- but the rest I would not venture a guess. They had several great speakers designs- the "ear" was a bit out there, even for them!
DC

 

[eddantes]

I had a pair. The tweeters were quite good... the ear... less so. Not bad at all... but in the end they found the door fairly quickly.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Mind found the door too; the curb to be precise. They were evidently the top of the Ear line and had excellent quality of construction and workmanship. Too bad all that effort was wasted, they sounded pretty bad. Veiled and thick, tubby--no good. But they only cost me $25, no big deal.

I kept the tweeters for a while; nice bullet horns with Alnico magnets. But I realized I'd never use the things except maybe as ashtrays so I threw them in the garbage too; I have ashtrays.

 

[sealy]

A collector friend managed to get hold of the Grandaddy of all ear speakers, an organ speaker about 6 ft. high x 4 ft. wide x 3 ft. deep. Inside was the largest ear driver I've ever seen - about 4 ft. high x 2.5 ft. wide, as I recollect. Also inside was a pulley-driven rod, powered by an electric motor. The rod had 4 weird foam/plastic mid range drivers attached. The motor rotated the mids on the rod at pretty good speed, similar to a Leslie speaker setup. There were also 8 bullet tweeters mounted in a horizontal line across the top of the cabinet. This fellow was interested only in the bullet tweeters, which he removed and sold on that auction site. He said I could have the cabinet, the mids and the giant ear, but I hadn't the room, so I declined. I've tried to find that speaker on the internet, but all the ear organ speakers I found were smaller.

 

[ssmith3046]

I bought a pair of these brand new in the early seventies and used them for several years with a new Yamaha receiver and new AR-XA/Shure V-15 III set up. They weren't bad speakers.

 

[mhardy6647]

I had one for a while - courtesy of my favorite local emporium. It was very sensitive and sounded perfectly OK, truth be told (my impression of it was more favorable than Tom's, e.g.). Sans a mate for stereo, though, it gathered dust for a long time. I tried to sell it and give it away several times - finally ended up leaving it on the freebie table at a NEARC antique radio fleamarket last year www.nearc.net

I think that this one was an NS-15...

 

[ssmith3046]

I remember the stereo salesman telling me at the time that is was shaped like a piano soundboard.

 

[jaguar06]

I remember the stereo salesman telling me at the time that is was shaped like a piano soundboard.

The bigger ones for organ use were generally shaped like a piano soundboard (actually wondered why such a shape), but not the smaller ones shown here.

Maybe the grand-piano shape allowed the driver to better deliver both bass and midrange frequencies?

 

[JohnVF]

There was a pair of these for sale on our CL and when I did some research, I was kind of surprised as I don't remember coming across a more universally maligned speaker from a major manufacturer. For that, I almost bought them out of curiosity but then thought better of it.

 

[Tom Brennan]

I'm just guessing but I think they might have needed a seperate midrange driver. Mine had styrofoam cone woofers that were probably pretty massive and combined with a probable fairly high crossover to the horn tweeter could've been the recipe for the muddy sound.

The dipolar woofer was an interesting idea and the bass was decent but the muddy midrange made it impossible for me to appreciate any virtues the speaker may have had. But if I were one of the open baffle fans I'd consider building a system around an ear woofer but using it strictly as a woofer, no higher than 500 hz maybe.

 

[kfa888]

I really want a set of these. Just cuz.

I got these with a group of various drivers I bought years ago. I had them around for years and finally DIYed them with some bastardized AR93's for the bottom, these running a wide range from the upper lows to the upper mids / tweeter and a EPI inverted dome tweeter. These sound fantastic (I know, very hard to be live) and rival my maggies. I am going to bring them to the next NW gathering and let people report their opinion. They should not sound near as good as they do. Was a fun project and amazingly fruitful unlike countless other trys and funky fun stuff.

 

[Nat]

The idea behind the ear speakers makes sense -- an asymmetrical driver to distribute resonances, and plenty of people like open baffle speakers. But rather like the tiny KEF Celeste, or whatever the B139 plus tweeter speaker's name was, a big styrofoam woofer married to a tweeter gives a horrid polar response and the midrange will suffer even if the woofer is 'fast'.
One of the things I look for at the dump.

 

[ssmith3046]

I never really thought that they sounded that bad. Nothing great but I've heard worse.

 

[frommerstop]

The BES "Geostatic" was a little more successful, and then Sumo, and Meitner had a go of the same idea... both much better than either the Yamaha, or BES, but still not earth movingly good. The idea behind the odd shape was to limit standing wave cancellation affects across, what was in effect, a transmission line. The "acoustic hammer" worked against the panel causing it to resonate. The resonant frequencies varied by panel thickness, and length. So, higher frequencies were broadcast from the areas closer to the sharper corner(s), and the lower came from the more open areas. Basically, the idea was to create ripples across the panel, and shape the panel (both with thickness, and the asymmetrical diameter) to keep reversed waves from cancelling out the primaries. The Sumo & Melior speakers used Mylar, while Yamaha & BES used Styrofoam. IIRC, there were a few other designs over the years that used wood, and I think at least one that was some type of acrylic.

 

[absolve2525]

I just hooked up my yammy ear speakers after moving a few months ago. They certainly aren't THAT bad. With some bass boost, they pack some surprising punch and big sound. The aluminum diaphragm, alnico bullet tweeter is hardly ash tray material. I'm sure they would sound even better with a recap. I like the openness of the midrange, after removing the THICK grill fabric and replacing it with more transparent modern fabric. They do sound different than most speakers, and your ear has to adjust to the... Ear sound? Anyhow, they do have their fans.

 

[Tom Brennan]

The aluminum diaphragm, alnico bullet tweeter is hardly ash tray material.

I used EV T-35s as ashtrays too, that's what the little ribs inside the horn are for.

 

[absolve2525]

Haha impressively resourceful.

 

[SOTA]

Those speakers even found their way into some Fender guitar amps...

J.R.