I'm looking at getting some extra monitors in the 6 inch speaker and 600 price range that hopefully offer enough accurate low end translation for making electronic music. Are Yamaha HS a good choice or are there better ones available today i should look at?

I appreciate it if replies only from people who actually have, had or use what is recommended, rather than random suggestions.

Thanks

 

I have a pair of HS 5's. over 12 years of use and they sound great.

 

best

 

I have the Yamaha HS-50 M series and the HS 5 they reproduce sound very neutrally.
The Yamaha HS-5 series is the successor to the HS-50M.

For me as a sound designer, the assessment of the bass is wonderful.
If you have a small room, the HS-5 are sufficient; if you have a larger room over 30 qm, go for the HS-8.

 

Last edited: Mar 31, 2026 at 1:23 PM

Here's amir's measurement of the HS 7:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/yamaha-hs7-review-studio-monitor.19761/

Conclusion:

"As modern studio monitors go, the Yamaha HS7 cannot keep up in delivering flat and objectively correct response. It does however deliver on industrial design. With a bit of EQ, the sound is transformed and becomes quite accurate and pleasurable.

Without EQ, I cannot recommend the Yamaha HS7. But with EQ, I would."

I think they are the best looking monitors, but that's just my personal taste.

Did you check Kali In8 or LP8? They got great measurement. It seems like Kali has some of the best value at the moment.

 

Last edited: Mar 31, 2026 at 6:49 PM

You will not get accurate low end on anything that doesn't reproduce it accurately, especially in sub par room, it's one of the most hardest task's to nail down accurately, you have no idea what is really happening bellow certain range and what you hear is influenced by your room. 0.5dB on something like 35hz can shift energy of the whole low end enough, not even mentioning how much of improvement you get tackling 20Hz and bellow, believe me, been there, done that, from 4" to 8" and with sub and all that.

Put that 600 bucks into headphones, it's closest you will get to actually hearing it down bellow and experience cones moving to his entirety, everything else is just guessing game and you will have soul crushing experience taking that music out of your studio and actually being played besides music that have low end that is actually professionally done.

 

A 5" woofer is not going to reproduce anything below 60hz or so accurately, meaning everything underneath your kick drum. The brand and model don't matter, even if some company has marketing that says they do.

You do not need a top of the line subwoofer to get some benefit. Go on Google and search for "subwoofer under $600", and you will see options from Kali, Adam, Yamaha, Mackie, JBL, and all the other manufacturers with subwoofers in your price range. If you get the HS5's (because they are not bad monitors), plan on getting a subwoofer in the near future. If you are making electronic bass-heavy music, you really should have one. Depending on your current monitors, I would probably do that first.

 

Really true I think but maybe not so important considering the fact that most listeners don't have the possibility of reproducing certain frequencies. Certainly I don't understand everything because I only have the NS5s and the beyer 779s but ....
@clone is the sub only a genre thing? it's also a professional level thing that is for sure, but is it necessary?

 

It's not absolutely necessary, and it is a genre thing if you mean all electronic dance music. Another option is even a Subpac, but you have to join a waiting list to buy them new for quite awhile now. It would become a little less necessary if he went to larger woofer nearfield monitors like 10s, 12's, or even higher. Can you get away with HS5's and still mix, yes; but the question is really can you trust what is down there? It's a coin flip on every track wether you got it right, or not.

 

Home listeners maybe, but if you have any desire to be actually played on big PA, most listeners there will have no choice then, plus imagine setup isn't that great to start with, it will sound absolutely horrible. Also in car's, they are really on the verge of breaking even with good produced low end, imagine rattle with something less of that. If you cut too much, it will sound thinner then everything, if you try to aim on similar target loudness, it will break in most horrible way.

It's one of those things, depends really on the genre and one's aim, it's not going to make or break your track, but sometimes it could, depends on your aim and genre.

 

Those HS-5s are not beating these https://www.neumann.com/en-gb/products/headphones/ndh-30-black-edition