Hailing from Yamaha's Custom series, this NS-525F three-way tower speaker starts your home theater system off with a bang. The speaker is housed in a tall, moderately narrow (7.88 inches) mitered construction cabinet with a luxurious black wood finish designed to complement a variety of audio components and TVs. More importantly, the speaker meets Yamaha's high standards for natural sound reproduction thanks to its unique three-way design concept, in which both the Advanced PMD (Polymer-injected Mica Diaphragm) cone midrange and woofer measure an identical 6.5 inches. The matching driver dimensions help the NS-525F reproduce natural-sounding vocals that transition seamlessly to the high frequencies without sacrificing the high-resolution, low-distortion bass that listeners crave. Though the midrange and woofer drivers are the same size, they differ slightly in construction. The midrange sports a 0.35 mm injection-molded polymer-injected mica cone with a curved shape that minimizes peaks or dips that might otherwise degrade the sound. By contrast, the woofer's cone checks in at a thicker, stiffer, and straighter 1 mm, thus producing high-quality bass with low minimum resonance frequency and high resolution. Both drivers are made of the same Poly-Menthyl-Penten material, however, which is 15 percent lighter than previous types to ensure faster response times and less resonance.
Meanwhile, the third driver--a 1.12-inch aluminum dome tweeter--features an integrated diaphragm/voice coil called a DC Diaphragm. The DC Diaphragm's extra-powerful neodymium magnet can reproduce frequencies all the way up to 100 kHz, an exceptional number for a tweeter of that size.
Additional features that improve the speaker performance include aluminum diecast baskets for the woofer and midrange, allowing for more detailed musical nuances; high-performance crossover networks (500 Hz and 3 kHz); two distinct chambers with vertical and slanted partitions to reduce unwanted vibration and create a greater feeling of depth; and a chamfered baffle that reduces sound diffraction. Technical specs range from an overall frequency response of 35 Hz to 50 kHz to power handling of 50 watts nominal and 200 watts maximum.
For the best home theater performance, listeners should team a pair of NS-525F tower speakers with the other speakers in Yamaha's Custom NS-525 series, which includes tonally matched bookshelf rear speakers (NS-M525) and a center channel speaker (NS-C525). The speaker is also magnetically shielded against video interference, so you can locate it next to a TV without distorting the picture. And as a final bonus, the NS-525F's extruded, gold-plated five-way binding post terminals ensure the best possible sound.
The Yamaha NS-525F speaker measures 7.88 by 39.38 by 14.19 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a two-year warranty.
What's in the Box
NS-525F tower speaker, four speaker stands, four 6 mm screws, four 4 mm wood screws, four pads, user's manual.
