Review: Yamaha HS7 Studio Monitors

Yamaha, the name says it all. One of the best-known brands among musicians around the world.

Known for innovation and the quality of their products, they have not disappointed either with the HS studio monitors series – they have become rapidly popular around the world.

The Yamaha HS7 is an active two-way near-field studio monitor. There is also a smaller version, the HS5, and a larger, the HS8.

All the speakers of the HS series are available in white as well as in black models.

How we met…

Each monitor came in separate boxes, well-packed to protect the content. From the very beginning, in the box, you will find of course the monitor, an electric power cable, and a handy manual.

The HS7 is equipped with a 6.5-inch bass woofer and a 1-inch tweeter. Both have been newly developed for the HS series.

The chassis is made of solid MDF material with a very solid mechanical design – they feel very good and robust. For its size of 210 x 332 x 284 mm the box with its 8.2 kg is surprisingly light.

Look & Sound…

The surround around the tweeter has a slight curvature towards the outside. This is referred to as Wav guide and is intended to provide better sound coupling to the housing.

In addition, the speaker was designed in a bass reflex design, with the opening of the bass reflex channel on the back.

All this looks very chic, the illuminated logo under the woofer emphasizes this.

HS7 studio monitor speakers are powered by separate power amplifiers, one for the woofer and one for the tweeter. 60 W plus 35 W result in 95 W total output.

On the back, you will find all possible settings and connections, which include XLR and TRS jack inputs, both symmetrical and unbalanced cabling is possible.

Keep in mind that you will need to buy a separate connection cable to connect the studio monitor with your audio interface (in case if you do not have it). I recommend you to get XLR to Jack two cables. In this way, I connected the monitors to my Focusrite 2i2 audio interface.

The Gain control also has markers for the settings MIN, +4 dB and -10 dB.

The power switch is located above the corresponding AC IN input.

Classic & Good…

Everything is classic, easy to use and to connect to your system, nothing surprising.

That’s good, you do not want to waste a lot of time before you can put some speakers in function. All the magic takes place in front of them!

The two Yamaha HS7 come in the usual test setup and form a stereo triangle with an edge length of just under one meter.

The manual explains only the most important facts and is also quite boring. On the other hand, as far as settings and connections are simple, in principle, everything is self-explanatory.

The HS7 is sound-neutrally providing many details in all situations. HS7 also plays strong, balanced, and without affecting the source sound, even if he has a slight tendency to sharpness in the heights. This makes voices and hi-hats sometimes a little hissing.

The bass strength is also good so that the HS7 plays vigorously and puts bass impulses at moderate volume very well. Even if it tends to be comparatively less spongy than the larger HS8, the activation of the 2 dB bass filter is also good here.

Only at a higher level are flow noises heard on the bass reflex channel. Due to the back side placement of the bass reflex, this is almost imperceptible.

Conclusion

For about 200 euros (each) you will get an absolutely convincing and affordable studio speaker, with which can be achieved good results.

Do not ignore the extremely low price of the HS series. The road price of the HS7 pair is about 400 euros – an absolutely great price for its value.

The Yamaha HS7 is not only for beginners and smaller studios but also for the pure music pleasure and great result in any situations.

The HS7 test offers such a fairly decent sound for relatively small money!

Specs:

6.5″ cone woofer (60W) + 1″ dome tweeter (35W)
Power: 95 W (Bi-Amp)
Bass-reflex system
Frequency response: 43 to 30.000 Hz
Balanced XLR input
Balanced 6.3 mm jack input
Adjustable input levels
Room control and high trim response controls
Dimensions (W x H x D): 210 x 332 x 284 mm
Weight: 8.2 kg

I bought the Yamaha HS7 monitors from the Thoman site, one of the largest online stores for musicians who ship in many countries. Payment is made directly with your card or PayPal. In 3 days the monitors were at my door. Buy with confidence!

More Details: Yahama HS7