Yamaha HS5 5-inch Powered Studio Monitor Reviews

They are superb.

This is just an amazing product. I can't describe the words enough. I have had other products, and they sounded great, but there were something missing like if all of the greater detail was omitted, but with these studio speakers from Yamaha for under $ these products absolutely give you the greater detail, especially when you have a Mac Pro computer for Studio purposes I would definitely recommend this product to anyone if you're looking for low end and low top this is not the product for you. If you're asking for mid top and high-end it's gonna give you a flat sound, but it's gonna give you the complete sound , all of the other things can be worked around when you work with the IQ if you ask for my opinion, you got it

I had to replace my old monitors, which were showing signs of failure. So, I decided upon these. The first thing I noticed was how clear they sound. I can hear every instrument, with no "muddy" sound. The reviews said that these are "unforgiving," because they have a flat curve. I had to adjust to that reality. If you are looking for a decent set of monitors for recording and/or audio production, I'd say these are really good in their price point.

These were purchased as a mini-me set to the Yamaha HS8s. They are smaller to fit in my son's apartment and still have the same quality and sound as one would expect from Yamaha. Amazing product.

These speakers remind me a bit of the NS10s from the days of yore. If I listen through my regular computer speakers there is a little bit of gloss in the playback that covers up blemishes. The Yamaha HS5 monitors definitely reveal things that need to be heard by anyone who is serious about mixing.
I am aware that there are many more expensive alternatives that may work better for some people, but based on my budget I believe my rep Chris Lewis made the right recommendation.

Thank you Chris,
Thank you Sweetwater

I have not used my sennheiser earphones since I installed these. Just wonderful

Strong monitors for the size--highly recommend ---But above and beyond the high quality of the monitors--It's the quality of the sales and systems people that make Sweetwater the best place to go ---Buy with total confidence from these guys--

Nice for the price

The HS 5 is built like a Tank. Packed by Yamaha in very well designed shipping boxes. My set of HS5's sounded excellent right out of the box. I ran some pink noise thru them and used and old Crown BDP-2 RTA. They hardly needed any touch up. The build quality is excellent...Thick Cabenit and some hefty weight. The way they have designed the system with two internal Power Amps One for the Hihgs and one for the Mid & Lows is a smart idea. The ones I have are the small version (5") Mid Low driver and small tweeter. For console monitoring once set at the correct distance and angel give a true picture of what you have put together.

I also have an Original Set Of Yamaha NS-10M's. These Smaller HS5's will take their palce as they are much smaller. There are a ton of so called monitors out there. But I'd go with the Yamaha's. They have always made excellent products.

I probably have sent multiple reviews, sorry, but I just have been creating the best music ever, with the strong help of Sweetwater!
Great equipment great support flawless characters!

I have been using Sweetwater for a great many years and also turned many of my musician friends into their choice!
They have never let me down!
Just when all hopes were down, they find a way to make it happen! You can't go wrong!

Very helpful staff and sprakers are working with turntable. Good sound!

These monitors are exactly what home studio monitors should be. More accurate than real life itself in should, very well built and all the needed options for configuration. They are richest in the mids, maybe a little lite on the lows for rappers but they are not home stereo speakers. These tell the truth and are absolutely ideal for someone who wants to learn to really "hear" music and use them as tools to make better mixes. I can't recommend these enough.

Powerful and accurate. Once I dialed-in placement, height and distance, they sound even sweeter! I am very pleased with the quality of these monitors.

Sound's very great! Love it!

I have owned my Hs5's for about 5 years.
They work for me ! You must test and evaluate your listening area. I referenced my favorite recordings and adjusted the speakers trim controls. Being rear ported this is important, consider their placement distance near walls.
I added a sub , balanced L to R. Bass content knowing the Hs5 low-end frequency range adjusted subs crossover, set the triangular ears to speaker distance and raised the Hs5 to the height of my head approx. Lastly I purchased the affordable Sennheiser HD 600 headphone touted as being honest flat response and comfortable to wear, which I found all to be true. Comparing my yamaha speaker mixes to the Sennheiser mixes I am happy to say they translate beautifully. I am now confident that what i hear thru the monitors is more accurately represented as to be true frequency response and thats what it's all about.
They don't set themselves up but as I said I worked at it and for the money,including the used sub and HD 600's I have a very good monitoring system. Under a $1000 and Bamm !
Serious goodness. Go for it

I love these speakers. They are compact and sound great. I mounted them on the wall as my room is small and they are perfect for space saving. Great quality.

Sound good very good

Crystal clear over the whole range of frequencies. Powerful enough to fill a medium sized room with awesome sound. Don't be smothered in headphones for mixing any longer, there's no comparison. These speakers tell you exactly what it actually sounds like.

Owned Jbl.. Krk.. Presonus and more.. Although the jbl we're my favorite they we'rent and aren't as flat and dead accurate as these babies are! Don't get me wrong jbl makes amazing speakers but trust me when i say Yamaha literally is game changing! Now i completely understand why yamaha is the industry standard.
If you want perfect mixes than get these. Great balance! Tight bass.. Awesome mids and just the right amount of highs. People say these lack low end and i completely disagree.. Now yes the woofer is only 5 inches and won't have the same big boom as an 8 inch of course but for a 5 inch woofer i can tell you that they do indeed have a very good amount of bass for sure. If you are in a smaller room get these monitors and save yourself from making the same mistakes as i did.

I ordered a pair of the HS5's for my home studio. They're very true to sound and even though they're the smallest of the series, they deliver everything we need for the demos we're doing before we head into the studio. They also work well with my audio-technica turntable.

I have a yamaha S80 with just a small speaker when i hooked it up withe these studio monitors. I was blown away. The clarity and the beautidul sound i love them! I totally recomend these.

Outstanding quality monitors that are compact, powerful, and sharp looking too. My "bedroom" studio is small so having large monitors is not necessary. Yet these HS5 powered monitors have more than enough range for mixing and general work (I am aware of signal loss/ fidelity on the ends of the spectrum, monitors are of course "flat"), so far I have been very please with what I hear. Very confident that proper placement and mixing fundamentals will provide superior production results. Overall very happy with these monitors.

This monitor deserves your consideration.

The white cone of Yamaha studio monitors are, and have been an industry standard for the last 30 plus years for good reason!! For accurate mixing, your monitors should not be amplifying or enhancing any frequencies that could mislead your in your mix. Although other monitors of this size my in fact sound better overall, they won't be as accurate to the flat response you'll need to get a truly balanced even mix. In short, if it/your mix, sounds good on these solid flat response Yamaha monitors, I believe It will sound good on just about any other system!

I've had these for over 2 years, and I hated them. No bass. Awkward mids. Yesterday I brought home a bunch of 3" rock wall sound absorbing panels and hung them up around my apartment. It's like I bought a new pair of speakers. The treatment soaked up a bunch of reflecting mids and high mids, and now I can actually hear the bass. Punchy, clear, defined bass. Not just accurate, but very pleasant.
I'm an idiot for going this long without treating my home studio. Don't be like me.
An 8 inch driver can compensate with extra bass for a badly treated room, but for a home studio you're really just compounding your problems.
Build the panels. Buy these speakers. Hear the truth.

I don't use these for mixing. I use these monitors to playback vinyl records. I was a musician for a very long time but now I just listen to music. I have these hooked up to a Technics 1200 turntable going through a Teac AG-790 receiver. I'm patching though the line out because these are powered monitors (don't use speaker out or you will blow them). I do not want "color" in my sound, meaning; I want a flat response. These are excellent at reproducing sound that is incredibly accurate. The records sound amazing. These are akin to some much more expensive audiophile speakers.

When you see pictures of professional studios you can recognize the white cone of the Yamaha brand studio monitors. There's a reason for that. I've had many different brands, and Yamaha is by far the clearest sound I've heard.

I love my 5" Yamahas. Admittedly, they're my first monitors, but I've worked in pro studios since the early 90s and have a decent grasp of pro quality gear. For my home use (I'm slowly building a little home studio), they're more than up to the task of mixing and monitoring. They're neutral without being sterile, accurate without being lifeless/depressing. Great value!

I was debating between a set of KRK Rokit 5 monitors and the PreSonus Eris 5s. So I was at my local shop doing a comparison listen, and they had the Yamaha HS5 set up alongside the others as well. I had seen the price online along with reviews, but I wasn't too interested knowing that they were a little more expensive than my other two choices. I decided to give them a listen, and even my wife, who has no mixing or sound experience, heard the night and day difference. These monitors are flat, clear, crisp and so many other adjectives that I could think of to describe them, These are easily the best purchase I have made for my home studio.

I have three set of monitors and the music sounds good on all of them. When I you burn a CD after mixing from all three monitors, the Yamaha speakers sound Flat and true to the mix. GREAT MONITORS.

I bought these to compliment my Yamaha MSP-7s as my "second set of ears".
Very nice, very flat, solidly built. Can't get enough of these for near-field work.
Have been buying more and more Yamaha products lately. Very impressed.

I bought these after hearing and working with KRK's, and then hearing these and spent a little more money. Absolutely perfect flat monitoring, no coloring of sound. Crystal clear, accurate sound. Love them and so glad I spent the little extra, will have these for a lifetime and never regret it.

This is the MVP of my mixing setup. If I can get my mixes to sound really good on these, they sound great on everything. I do the bulk of my work on them, because they are so brutally honest. It hit me the day I played a well mixed album, that I love, and thought I was listening to my bigger monitors, I realized that great mixes come across as great and full on them and bad ones come across as bad. It takes out the guess work, and allows me to just mix until it sounds good. I will upgrade the various components of my studio over time, but one thing that won't change, these, no matter how fancy my mains get I can always trust these to give it to me the bad news first.

Like they say, if your mix sounds good on these, your mix will sound good everywhere.

I'm super happy with the quality of these speakers. The size is perfect for my bed-room style studio setup, and the quality of sound is awesome.

I purchased the Yamaha HS5's because I wanted a good, inexpensive pair of powered studio monitors. These definitely surpassed what I was expecting... The freq response is better than expected in this price range of powered monitor speaker. I also use them for live reference in the studio for keyboard & guitar,,,

I bought them for my wife's setup 8x10 office. She said that I ruined music for her with my hs8's and sub. she would never hear music the same again. So I had to hook her up. Happy wife = happy life.

I intern at a studio that uses these and I had to get my hands on them, they're the perfect size for a small at home studio and their loud and clear enough so you can hear every individual track but they're mid enough that when you create a great mix using these monitors the mix sounds phenomenal everywhere else! I'm absolutely in love with these and the service was phenomenal!

These sound great, almost too good. They reveal everything and are the truest monitors I have ever heard. They are not bottom heavy so someone who has to have exaggerated bass may not like these. But if you want accurate and honest response to do the best mixing possible, this is a winner.

Exceeded my expectations...great addition to my home studio

I have used a few different monitoring solutions over the past 10 or so years, the most recent being from m-audio in a similar price range. Finally failed and needed replacing. I was going to order JBL 305s on sale, but after calling and finding they're all out (and being discontinued for a new model), I was told they are a bit bass heavy anyway, but the classic-looking Yamaha's might be better for what I do (classical composition, acoustic mixing, and sound design, on top of rock/pop mixing and production).

Unpacked them, and put them on Auralex Mopad foam wedges about 30" cone-to-cone (that's how much space I have!!) and connected them to my Focusrite Saffire interface. Pulled up some old music I grew up with to get to know my new speakers, and was blown away. I couldn't stop smiling for 20 minutes at how clear and precise these are! The separation is incredible (regardless of price range) and the imaging is impressive for the size of the speakers and my space.

Maybe you've read reports of people hearing things they never noticed before? I always assumed that was either hyperbole or just a byproduct of listening more intently with new speakers, but I did not intend to listen more closely. I just wanted to browse some websites with some chili peppers on the speakers washing over me in an ambient sort of way; not paying attention, just getting used to the feeling of these speakers, if you know what I mean. And from doing that, I noticed subtleties in the baselines, some vocal harmonies were more clear that I hadn't noticed were 3 part, always assumed 2 part... Things like that. Also noticed that some music sounds much worse on these (90s hip hop), and I decided that either A) I don't like those mixes, or B) they were intended to be heard on speakers that "enhance" the listening experience.

Either way, if something sounds good on these Yamaha's, they will sound good everywhere else!

I bought these as I started getting serious with my mixing. I can honestly say they HELP getting a better mix. In the sense that they sound flat so you're forced to work your sounds so they can sound great coming out of these speakers. So I definitely recommend them for mixing, keep in mind that I reference between these and my Genelecs 8050 which are amazing monitors also!

I own a pair of Genelec 8040A's and in my mind they simply can NOT be beaten. Genelec have a quality that borders of absolute perfection.

Those Genelecs ended up in a project studio thats at a friends house, we use it every day and becasue they are so good taking them out constantly was a pain. So we bought me some cheap speakers for home use. (so I could at least continue working on our music)

Enter the HS5's...

I plugged them in and instantly hated them.

Overbright

No low end

Screechy mids

Then, I started to get used to them, and wore them in and over the period of a little over 8 months now I have learned to love these monitors!

So what changed?

It's difficult to really put my finger on it and succinctly explain it but the HS5's are very 'real' sounding. What bass they do have is superbly controlled. They dont hit the lower frequencies below maybe 75hz, so effectively mixing say EDM would be quite difficult to achieve if you didn't have another set of monitors to reference a mix on, or the HS5's sub (which I dont even intend to buy now because my ears have adjusted to these monitors)

You see what I mean.. I'm struggling to explain..

But in a nutshell...

I went from hating these to loving them, a process that took a few months. We are going to buy another set for the studio, so we have the two different mix sounds to A/B because I think they are invaluable in developing a sound and to a lesser extent your ear if you are an audio professional.

I like them, they are solid, well built and Yamaha have managed to capture in them some of that magic that they instilled into the NS10's The NS10's sound TOTALLY awful but everyone loves them for that unquantifiable reason... These HS5's are of the same ilk, don't discount them!

These speakers were better than I had anticipated. After months of research I finally decided to go with the HS5's. I knew that they did not have a lot of low end frequency and that sort of bummed me out, but I have come to the realization that it is actually a good thing - it makes mixing those frequencies even easier (to me at least) because you don't have to worry about any exaggerated bass. These blow KRK's out of the water, paying the extra $50 is definitely worth it. I will be recommending these to anyone. And cheers to you guys at sweetwater for the 2-day shipping, you guys are awesome.

Great speakers for the money. They're a perfect fit for my small desk space. I also purchased the HS8 Sub Speaker to feel the low end.

I bought a pair of HS5 because they are promoted as being unforgiving or sonically "honest". I'd have to agree. They are an excellent smaller speaker, and very inexpensive for the value they provide. I also bought a pair of HS8s and a pair of MixCubes. Currently, these are my go-to speakers and I switch between them--often rapidly--to understand what is happening in a mix. I consider this setup a ridiculously good value for the cost. Not cheap, but certainly not bank-breakingly expensive. Supposedly, Yamaha's HS line of reference monitors are really popular, and I can understand why. The HS5 and HS8 are definitely different, which makes sense since the HS8 has an 8-inch woofer and the HS5 has a 5-inch woofer. But in both cases, the low-and high-mids are clear and articulate, the highs are clear and non-fatiguing, the lows are crisp and punchy. I don't own a sub-woofer, because I don't need one yet. However, I will very likely buy the Yahama companion sub, and eventually a pair of HS7, to get a well-rounded sense of the mix, and especially for mastering. Someday I can buy the super high-end reference monitors (Focal, etc.), but for now I think I've made out amazingly well for what I have paid for these.

Mixed for years on NS-10Ms, but I'm down to only one working pair. My Sweetwater engineer recommended the HS5s, and I have not been disappointed. Very similar to the gold standard. I'd give them a 5 except the lighted logos on the front are too bright - had to cover then up. As always, Sweetwater gets a 10 for super service, quick shipping, fair price.

Teas do not sound "good." they sound true (which is what you want for mixing). They have a really good flat response that tells you your true sound. I have used Tannoys for a while and I thought they were good. But when I went and tested out the HS8s at a friend’s studio, I heard how much I was missing. I didn't have the room for the HS8s so I got the HS5s and they were just as good. The only difference that I noticed was that there is less low end on the HS5s. with is expected with a smaller box (still a good low end just less of it). The overall quality of the HS5s is fantastic. A rock soled box with rugged hardware (nobs, switches, ext.). And the Yamaha back lit logo on the front is really cool lol. At this price point teas can’t be beat.

I am still young and haven't tried out all of the monitors on the market. I feel confident in saying that I can hear everything going on in the mix so much better with these guys. It's nice to that these can get some lows but I would like a subwoofer to go with them. That is the only reason I didn't give them a 100%. The mids and highs sound awesome and I CAN hear the bass, it's just A TAD muddy. The 7in or 8in probably just have a clearer low end sound but for the price and size of the monitors themselves, I am more than happy

If you mainly do acoustic and or chamber music, these are truly appropriate. The 5' drivers along with the x-over integration with the tweeter and the excellent integrated power amp provide a truly natural sound scape comparing to very expensive high end speakers fed by expensive amplifier. I would go as far as recommend them these for home listening application allowing to spend money on good pre-amp and source.

However as with all speakers with small drivers, low warmth end is an issue and I do not recommend these as exclusive monitor for rock or hip hop. For my project I went to HS8, but I would have kept both HS5 and HS8 if I could afford it. Did not have chance to try the HS7.

I don't have the previous version (HS50M) to compare these to, but everything I read about those seem to apply to the HS5. These speakers are unflattering and unforgiving. The best professional mixes sound "good" in these. Listening to my own mix was a bummer initially, but that's just what the doctor ordered.

I already had a pair of full range monitors, but they made most everything sound good and my mixes did not translate outside the studio. They covered up the critical mid range. Switching between these and the HS5 helped me identify problem frequencies. When I conducted my first test in the car stereo, I couldn't believe how well the mix translated. This is perhaps the best investment I've made in the home stuido thus far. Everything else is pretty much pointless unless your mixes translate well on the outide, right? I wouldn't use these to enjoy music, but for getting your mixes to translate -- just what I needed!

I love the sound of these monitors. It would be a 5 out of 5 but, you have to create your own system for hanging them in your studio. This product should have been made like the HS5I's to have the whole pre-drilled in the rear.

They sound good. Quite clear and priced reasonable, especially when on sale. When I do it again though, I'll get the 8". Not much bass response when coming direct out of my Scarlett 2i2 interface. What you don't hear will be prominent when you play your mix in the car. Running the interface into a mixer then out to these monitors helps because I can add bass to the signal without altering the mix.

I am still breaking them in. I bought a pair of this monitor along with a apogee duet2 to replace a pair of M audio bx5s and a line 6 ux2 interface that Ive had for a while now. For the most part I am satisfied but I feel these will be much better when I shell out another $500 for a Subwoofer. So not a 5 star rating because I have to spend more money. But I am satisfied,

I'm on a tight budget and my home studio is tiny (about 170 square feet). The low end on these monitors are not great, but on top of that they retain the mid and high frequencies really well; and the mid frequencies are more important to me than the highs and lows.

I highly recommend the Yamaha HS5s. They're great for those who are just starting out and equally as great for serious producers who have a small space to work with or need a mobile pair of monitors.

I use to own a pair of krk Rokit 5's back in the day(which will give you BASS)! Nowadays I'm looking for a true flat sound & these babies are the best on the market in the 5" range imo. I've also tried out the Makie 5" monitors in another studio(they are ok). If I had a choice between the rokit's/ makie's, or hs5's I'd still pick Yamaha! I wish I could've gotten the hs8's but I got what I could afford...I might pick up the HS8 S(sub) if I need more bass, but these are fine for me!

So far these have proved to be an excellent bang for the buck- very clear and surprisingly poweful for their size / wattage. I had a set of popular bass ported monitors (those with an almost cult like following) but I replaced them with the HS5s based on the recommendation made by Mike Senior in his book Mixing Secrets and treatise on the downside of mixing with inexpensive ported monitors. I'm redoing / reconstructing my home studio so I have not gotten a chance to the try them in a full recording and monitoring environment yet.

I like them as general use for a home studio setup. I've had a pair for several years now and have discovered were and when to use them. The highs are a bit too colored to get a translatable mix. For a while I had to constantly A and B with a klipsch setup in order to find something that can translate to all other speaker types. I found the yamahas cover up a lot of "boxy" sounds. These are best paired with auratones or ns-10s to get a complete mix.

Really good speakers. They sound great and can deliver complex sounds with great detail. At 5" they do lack the punch of a bigger speaker and you can tend to overdue the bass in your mixes trying to achieve some punch. You can get use to them and adjust your mixes accordingly. But I'd say save for the 8inch speaker model. These are great quality with a lot of control, plus they look great. Get them if it's what you can afford.

I've had these monitors for a few years now and the low end is absolutely abysmal. There is a lot of high end definition but it feels colored and overly bright so when you go to listen to the mix on other systems you lose that clarity you thought you had during mixing. I would not say that the response is by any means "Flat" it is high end bias and when you push the levels on the speaker to its upper capacity the cone reverberations distort the audio.
The lack of low end on the speaker forces you to try and compensate in the mix and under apply the low end to try and make it translate to other systems.

I was never a fan of the NS-7 theory of monitoring, and went out on a limb with these based on a reccomendation. They sound terrible. If you want to see what your mix sounds like on garbage speakers, then these will achieve that; though you could probably go find some garbage speakers for a lot cheaper.