Yamaha speaker crossover

[Saffire]

I recently acquired a pair of Yamaha NS-A535's from Goodwill for $19. They're a big pair of 3-way speakers and sound very nice. There's not much info about these speakers on the internet, but I'm guessing that they're OLD. Maybe 80's or 90's.

The fact that they're old points to one problem. The crossover. There's no way for me to open these speakers without breaking the cabinet. The speaker grill is nailed on, along with the speakers screwed on from the inside. I can't take off the rear terminal either without causing damage.

What am I supposed to do here? Are the crossovers still good? I'm hoping that Yamaha sealed these speakers completely for a reason; nothing will go wrong with them. But that's likely not the case.

 

[swechsler]

These appear to be the smaller version of the NS-A635, a design that continues to this day in a slightly modified version as the NS-6490. First made in the 1980s. The reason that they're sealed is that, well, they were meant to sell for not much money, so they saved pennies wherever they could, which included the non-removable grills (later versions of the 635 do have removable grills). In fact, I believe that in these speakers, the grill cloth was attached directly to the front baffle and then the whole assembly was glued to the rest of the cabinet frame.

IMO, just enjoy them as they are. If they start sounding off, then you should look into opening them, but due to their original target price, I wouldn't put much money or effort into it.

 

[toxcrusadr]

80s or 90s is not that old but I guess it's all relative. Being Yamaha they probably have decent caps in them, but they might have some electrolytics if they were built to a strict price point. My advice would be the same as swechsler, listen to them and don't worry about it unless they sound bad.

 

[mhardy6647]

They almost certainly have two capacitors in them as the crossover -- the minimum possible.
I say this based on a pair of NS-A635s that passed through here years ago. I thought they sounded pretty terrible, but then again I am sure they were inexpensive.
The grilles on the NS-A635s were removable (FWIW).

dumpyamahae by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[swechsler]

The grilles on the NS-A635s were removable (FWIW).

Correct, the later versions had removable grills. The original version did not.

 

[Saffire]

These appear to be the smaller version of the NS-A635, a design that continues to this day in a slightly modified version as the NS-6490. First made in the 1980s. The reason that they're sealed is that, well, they were meant to sell for not much money, so they saved pennies wherever they could, which included the non-removable grills (later versions of the 635 do have removable grills). In fact, I believe that in these speakers, the grill cloth was attached directly to the front baffle and then the whole assembly was glued to the rest of the cabinet frame.

IMO, just enjoy them as they are. If they start sounding off, then you should look into opening them, but due to their original target price, I wouldn't put much money or effort into it.

Ah, okay. It always seemed strange to me to seal the cabinet like that. Thanks for the info. I'll just use these for now until I can afford a pair of decent floor-standers.

 

[Saffire]

They almost certainly have two capacitors in them as the crossover -- the minimum possible.
I say this based on a pair of NS-A635s that passed through here years ago. I thought they sounded pretty terrible, but then again I am sure they were inexpensive.
The grilles on the NS-A635s were removable (FWIW).

dumpyamahae by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

It has to be that tweeter, hah. That exact tweeter design is never pleasant sounding to my ears no matter the speaker. My A535's use a paper cone woofer-style tweeter instead.