Ho Hum - another couple of boxes with some more of those round cone thingies in them. Makes it tricky to see why one speaker sounds significantly different to any other doesn't it?

    Yamaha have been in the speaker business longer than most (the Yamaha NS-10M is one of the most widely used studio monitors in the world) and whereas they make some crappy cheap speakers to satisfy the bottom end of the market, their more expensive range are really state of the art design and are a sonic match for just about any of the opposition.

    The 160cm Woofers consist of Polymer Injected Mica using a 35% mix of Indian Pearl Mica - very expensive - very crisp clear sound. The Tweeter is a 3 cm Silk Dome construction for a smooth high frequency response with high power handling. Frequency response is claimed to be 30 - 35,000 Hz, Sensitivity at 91dB with an impedance of 6 Ohms. The box size is 900mm (H) X 212mm (W) X 317mm (D) and weighs in at 19kg's

    OK let's be honest about this - I bought a swag of these because Paradigm were out of stock of their Phantom model and I needed a $1500 ish speaker to fill the gap. I'd never heard them but the reviews from other sources said they were good so I bit the bullet. Good job I did, they have a real low tight bass without being boomy and their top end is almost as sweet as the Paradigms (the best in the business). On Joe Jacksons "Night and Day" which is one of the cleanest mixes on CD, the NS300's provided an almost "in studio" experience and, whilst not quite in the same league as my Electrovoice MS802 monitors, certainly gave me a thoroughly enjoyable 60 minutes (yes folks, I actually listened to them for a full hour - that's how good they are). For classical music listening I found the NS300's to be slightly laid back (Rogers style) in the string department but answering with a sense of urgency when the brass and percussion was asked to do their thing - quite pleasing overall. For Home Theatre work the Yamaha's will kick as hard as necessary and give excellent soundstaging with good vocals, no strain is evident on the loudest of tracks we use for demo. (the pod landing from Planet of The Apes).

    Speakers tend to be a value for money issue and one has to view these speakers relative to their retail price of $1699 pair and as such offer a great buy in an overcrowded market.