Found Yamaha NS-2000 but in bad shape

[David Woo]

This is my first time posting so please be patient with me. I happened to see an ad for a pair of Yamaha NS-2000 for sale in my area for below market price. I was so excited and went over and checked it out this evening but the pair are in bad shape. One of the woofers is disconnected from the inside and also noticed the surround is coming off from the cone in a small area of about 1-2 inches . The surround for the other woofer is half stiffs (the half that is towards the bottom). Some of the screws for the woofer are rusted. One of cabinets has a lot of scratches on top and on the side. The seller doesn’t have an amplifier to demo the set so can’t tell if they work or how they sound. I did check with a multimeter and the one with the woofer disconnected has no reading but the other one has a reading of about 7.3 ohm.

How easy it is to fix or replace the surround for the woofers? I like to know should I take a chance and get it for about 1/4 of the current market price base on the conditions?

Update - I just uploaded photos of the said pair of NS-2000.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mark B]

Welcome to AK David!

Woofer surrounds for NS-2000's are available. Sounds like it will be a big project but the NS-2000's are worth it.

 

[HypnoToad]

Welcome to AK. Fine speakers but you need to check out the midrange and the tweeters, they're special beryllium-dome's and new ones are unobtanium now. If the mids and tweeters work properly the woofers 'may' be able to be repaired, if they don't I would steer clear IMHO.

Update: Looking at your photo's they don't look as bad as you said, cabinets have no water damage. Check those mids/tweeters, if like nolasally said they can be sourced, the more that work the better.

 

[nolasally]

If below 1000.00 buy at once. The veneer can be sanded and refinished. Tweeters and mids are the same units that are in NS-1000 and are readily available albeit expensive. The woofers are unique to NS-1000x and NS-2000. If they need repair try to find a pro locally to refoam them. Shipping woofers is tricky and these can be prone to magnet shift. Properly working and looking good these are a 3000- 4000.00 speaker.

 

[blademan13]

I agree with the above. If mid and tweet are good it is almost a guarantee. Under a grand either buy them or send me the contact info. Speakers worth owning.

 

[David Woo]

Thank you for all your input and suggestions. I have decided not to pursue the said pair even though the price is very good and tempting plus I really want a pair of NS-2000. My decision on not to pursue it is based on the current conditions and the additional money that have to spend to restore it. It was actually a heartbreaking scene when I first saw the pair in person because the listing photo wasn't as bad as it is. One of the speakers looks like it was handled by Wolverine as there are scratch marks deep into the side of the cabinet. I don't know how much it will cost to refurnish the cabinet as I never need such service and since I am in Southern California, it will not be cheap. It was also my fault that I wasn't well prepared for testing the speakers and therefore I am not sure if the tweeters, midrange and woofers are in good working order. My basic understanding of those speakers is that the drivers are pretty unique and replacement drivers are not cheap if they need to be replaced. I did a quick math and figured it could cost $2k-$2.5k for acquiring the sets and to fix any hardware issue plus cabinet refurnish. The set does not come with the original grills so no grills. So at the end, I decided to walk away from the set.

 

[Shawnnnn]

Why did the seller unplug the one woofer. Is it dead? Only way to know is to test it at the speaker itself and not where you plug in the speaker wires.

The surround is probably stiff because it looks like he put some weird crap on it. Will probably be a pain in the ass to clean that up but surrounds aren't too hard to put on. With speakers this valuable if you haven't done it before maybe take them to a pro.

As mentioned, good luck with the mids and tweeters. Use your meter on those as well if the seller will let you check them before buying. Will of course require you to unscrew them from the cabinets, or bring an amp and listen.

 

[Shawnnnn]

I posted at the same time as you. Probably a good a good choice to pass unless they were very cheap. Obviously someone abused them so who knows how many drivers actually worked.

 

[Mark B]

Thank you for all your input and suggestions. I have decided not to pursue the said pair even though the price is very good and tempting plus I really want a pair of NS-2000. My decision on not to pursue it is based on the current conditions and the additional money that have to spend to restore it. It was actually a heartbreaking scene when I first saw the pair in person because the listing photo wasn't as bad as it is. One of the speakers looks like it was handled by Wolverine as there are scratch marks deep into the side of the cabinet. I don't know how much it will cost to refurnish the cabinet as I never need such service and since I am in Southern California, it will not be cheap. It was also my fault that I wasn't well prepared for testing the speakers and therefore I am not sure if the tweeters, midrange and woofers are in good working order. My basic understanding of those speakers is that the drivers are pretty unique and replacement drivers are not cheap if they need to be replaced. I did a quick math and figured it could cost $2k-$2.5k for acquiring the sets and to fix any hardware issue plus cabinet refurnish. The set does not come with the original grills so no grills. So at the end, I decided to walk away from the set.

If you really want a pair of NS-2000's in great shape sign up on HiFiDo's Alert System.

 

[momolou]

NS 2000 quality above NS 1000 Yamaha ?

 

[Ds2000]

Thank you for all your input and suggestions. I have decided not to pursue the said pair even though the price is very good and tempting plus I really want a pair of NS-2000. My decision on not to pursue it is based on the current conditions and the additional money that have to spend to restore it. It was actually a heartbreaking scene when I first saw the pair in person because the listing photo wasn't as bad as it is. One of the speakers looks like it was handled by Wolverine as there are scratch marks deep into the side of the cabinet. I don't know how much it will cost to refurnish the cabinet as I never need such service and since I am in Southern California, it will not be cheap. It was also my fault that I wasn't well prepared for testing the speakers and therefore I am not sure if the tweeters, midrange and woofers are in good working order. My basic understanding of those speakers is that the drivers are pretty unique and replacement drivers are not cheap if they need to be replaced. I did a quick math and figured it could cost $2k-$2.5k for acquiring the sets and to fix any hardware issue plus cabinet refurnish. The set does not come with the original grills so no grills. So at the end, I decided to walk away from the set.

Turning down rare items is hard to do in this hobby and many may boo the decision to walk. But I laud it. They would have been a money pit in the near recycling shape they have fallen into

 

[swechsler]

Maybe post a link to the ad in the Dollars & Sense subforum so a fellow AKer who is prepared to do the repairs can enjoy them.

 

[damacman]

Some people's children ... what a shame.

 

[onwardjames]

This thread saddens me all around. I've become spoiled with McIntosh tuners being restored ground up that I thought had no chance, drbiggles and his projects, and many, many others.

Lots of work to make these right. Perhaps you just aren't the person to do it, and I understand that completely. I passed on some AR-3a's for the same reason.

 

[David Woo]

NS 2000 quality above NS 1000 Yamaha ?

The NS-2000 is the successor to NS-1000 and sonically better with a bigger sound stage, clear mid and high based on my opinion. It is also physically much bigger than NS-1000. You can't tell it is bigger just by themselves but you will see how much bigger when they are put side-by-side next to the NS-1000.

 

[David Woo]

Maybe post a link to the ad in the Dollars & Sense subforum so a fellow AKer who is prepared to do the repairs can enjoy them.

The seller is in Montclair area near Chino in CA and the ad is available in OfferUp. I am not sure if I can or should post the link here but use the keyword "Yamaha NS 2000" and you will see that ad.

 

[David Woo]

Turning down rare items is hard to do in this hobby and many may boo the decision to walk. But I laud it. They would have been a money pit in the near recycling shape they have fallen into

Yes, it was a hard decision and I felt really bad that night after visiting the seller and the set but ultimately walked away from it. I keep thinking it could be a potential money pit and even with a good restore, it will not be as good as a good maintained set plus without the original grills. Besides, I know there is another set of NS 2000 for sale in Southern California and the seller is asking for low $3k. That set is in much better shape plus it has the original grills and the seller can demo the set if interested so I have little reason to potentially spend a lot of money in a pair of NS 2000 in bad shape.

 

[onwardjames]

I forgot to welcome ya, David.

WELCOME TO AUDIOKARMA!

 

[foobarz]

About 25 years ago, I had my Yamaha NS-2000 woofers refoamed at a professional speaker repair shop. It might have been this shop, https://reconingspeakers.com/ , because that is in the area where I was (Tampa Bay, Florida). The foam is still okay and the speakers are sounding very good right now. I restored by Yamaha M-65 amplifier, and that made a big difference. Sounds like new now. Anyhow, I hope someone will fix those NS-2000s. That foam looks really bad on those! The cabinet needs refinish. I suppose they must have been kept in very humid conditions for those screws to rust like that. Yamaha NS-2000s should be kept dry, in a A/C room as much as possible. That much humidity may have damaged the crossover network inside and corroded the "L-pad" attenuators on the front (probaby they can just be "exercised" to get them to work okay). If any of the drivers (tweeter, mid, or woofer) are actually broken, then it would be terrible to try to fix. I think there are shops in Japan that could completely restore those, including taking apart all of the drivers and fixing them, rebuilding the crossover network, etc. (perhaps Kenrick Sound or HiFiDo ?). It would be so expensive, for sure, but they could still end up being great. They should at least be kept for a future restoration, not junked.

 

[aatrucking77]

I just created this account because I purchased the set of ns-2000s in the picture. Paid the guy $800 for them. They looked like they had seen better days. The cabinet on one was pretty bad, nothing that couldn't be fixed tho. Both woofers needed to be refoamed so I took them to a speaker repair guy in westminster who custom fitted surrounds for a 15" woofer. They've been fed by a Sansui G-7700 for the last two & a half years or so & have sounded amazing... up until just recently. The woofer on one of them blew. Took it back to my guy who showed be where it blew. Right underneath the dust cap where the wires go down to the voice coil. He tried to source parts to fix it but says he has no suppliers in the US that carry any of the parts & I guess they are very unique as far as the internals go. Pretty amazing the tolerances of the moving parts. Really got an idea of the build quality & craftmanship that went into producing these....but yeah, that's where I'm at. He's trying to find parts oversees but no luck so far. Being as how I was researching where to get parts for these & I came across this post referencing the pair I picked up I had to add something to this thread and see if there is anyone on here that might have a line on a replacement woofer, parts for repair or even be able to at least set me in the right direction in finding what I need to bring these gems back to life. I don't wanna break the bank but I'm definitely willing to throw some money at fixing them. Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated, thanks.