The ported, two-way, CA$ 6000/pair standmount Yamaha NS-800A oozes quality—it’s hefty, feels impeccably built, has a curvaceous body, and comes with big, robust binding posts that feel like iron door knockers between your fingers.

It also comes in a beautiful black finish, said by Yamaha to be the same signature gloss finish used on the company’s grand pianos.

Yamaha, of course, has a long and storied history of making instruments and the company will tell you that a huge part of the sound made by an instrument comes from how its enclosure handles vibrations. The Japanese company somewhat bucks the speaker-manufacturing trend here. Rather than try to create a completely inert cabinet, like many speaker manufacturers try to do, Yamaha designs its cabinets on the fundamental principle that the best sound is achieved not via an acoustically dead enclosure, but by determining what makes the enclosure “sound” and where to suppress and control its vibrations. It is this same vibration control principle Yamaha uses in making its musical instruments.

Eye-opening to me was how many technical features the NS-800A shares with Yamaha’s flagship, 3-way, standmount NS-5000, which retails for CA$ 20,000.

Aside from the fact both models come in the same fancy enamel-like piano finish, they also come equipped with the company’s original twisted flare port and utilize the synthetic polymer material Zylon in their cones. But while the NS-5000’s units use 100% Zylon, those of the NS-800A use the company’s newly-developed “Harmonious Diaphragm” blend of Zylon and spruce. On its website, Yamaha states that Zylon has “excellent sound velocity and optimal internal dissipation”, while spruce is “used in the soundboard of Yamaha grand pianos and is essential for emanating sound. This ensures that the harmonies of the sound stand out and the music is richer and more beautiful”.

Notably, as a method of eliminating standing waves, both the NS-800A and NS-5000—in another trend-bucking design approach—try to use as little absorbent materials as possible in their enclosures to avoid, according to Yamaha, robbing the music of life and dynamics. Instead, Yamaha employs the company’s patented Absorber Tube inside its enclosures, said to not only address standing waves but help preserve the music’s dynamism and the acoustic energy produced by the woofer.

In another nod to actual instruments, the same laser vibrometers used in the development of the company’s musical instruments were used in developing both models’ speaker enclosures.

In light of all these similarities between the two models, it might be reasonable to assume that the NS-5000 and the NS-800A share a familial sonic signature, and that the NS-800A may be a relative bargain in comparison to the NS-5000, as long, of course, as the NS-800A’s sound delivers the goods.

The speakers arrived with custom stands, the SPS-800A, made exclusively for both the NS-800A and its less-expensive sibling, the NS-600A. If you can stretch your budget the extra CA$ 999.95 it costs to buy the stands, I suggest you seriously consider doing so; these MDF-stemmed supports with their solid, 3-layer bases were a great match for the NS-800As—in looks, build, and sound quality.

According to its user manual, the 86.5dB-sensitive NS-800As require a minimum 40Wpc to drive them properly, so I had no problem driving them with my 150Wpc Krell 300i integrated amplifier. The rest of my system included a Simaudio 260D CD player, a Lenco L75/Audio Technica turntable, and an Oracle Paris PH200 phono stage, with cabling by Audience.

My audition began with the album Nocturne (CD, GFN Productions) by Les 9 et Vincent Bélanger, an ensemble of 8 cellos and a double bass assembled and led by Quebec cellist Vincent Bélanger. Through the Yamahas, the sound was sumptuous, leaning slightly to the darker side of neutral in a way that enhanced the deep-toned, grindingly resonant texture of the strings and revealed the instruments’ hollow, wood bodies. The Yamahas exhibited a lack of mechanical brightness or artifice, sounding natural and organic. Individual melodies were easy to follow as they weaved in and out of each other’s paths.

There was nothing cheap about the sound; it was weighty and rich. The speakers sounded bigger than they looked, more like corpulent floorstanders than 16″-high standmounts. On an operatic track, soprano Lyne Fortin’s voice was placed steadily and dimensionally in space, delivering nuance and levels of power intensities.

Next, I played “Rose Rouge”, the first track off artist St-Germain’s break-out electro album Tourist (CD, EMI). The soundstage was huge through the Yamahas, producing the biggest 3D landscape I’d ever heard from this recording. Percussive sounds had snap and variety. Sounds were clearly rendered, demarked, and harmonically developed. Bass notes bounded with substance, while trumpet and saxophone notes exhibited realistic tone and spatial movement.

The Yamahas projected presence—they threw a soundfield into my room that was lit up with musical information. Tourist‘s second track, “Montego Bay Spleen”, is filled with swirling and out-of-phase effects. I’d never heard those effects come this close to me before. Some enveloped me completely, some threaded themselves through my ears like musical ear floss. Had my eyes been closed, and had I not known beforehand exactly where the speakers were located, I would’ve never been able to pinpoint their location simply by the sound they emanated. The NS-800As were also proficient at delivering the rhythmic qualities of a track, as they did on “Montego Bay Spleen”, making its beat sound dynamically, foot-tappingly spry and snappy.

Inspired by Yamaha’s link to pianos, I played something with piano: “African Village Bedford-Stuyvesnat 1”, a solo piano work off Randy Weston’s double-CD release The Spirits of our Ancestors (2CD, Verve). Listening to the piano’s low notes, it was clear the 800s could deliver a copious amount of clean bass—I won’t even say “for a standmount”. The Yamahas delivered satisfying bass energy and depth, and again, rich, natural tone, as evidenced by the weighty sound pressure delivered by the lowest keys, but also by the resonant lifespans of piano notes from across the keyboard. I heard a real piano.

As I did on Montreal band Give’s LP Of the Bird, Flying (LP, self-published). The album, which includes mostly acoustic arrangements and was recorded using a purist audio approach, contains a collection of creatively-composed, soulful songs written with the lyrics by the late Canadian poet Sol Mandlsohn. Through the Yamahas, Give co-founder Stephan Rich’s electric and acoustic guitars appeared full-sounding and tangible, while the tender, expressive vocals of other co-founder, Caroline St-Louis, were well-focused, intimately resolved, and genuine-sounding—I know Caroline personally. I’ve heard her sing live at small venues and the woman with the sweet, articulate voice I heard through the Yamahas was unmistakably Caroline.

The choruses sung by Vibz—a female choir assembled with equal amounts of difficulty and determination by Caroline in the midst of restrictive COVID conditions during winter—sounded lush, pure, distinctly layered, and fleshed out. And while I’ve heard some other speakers deliver just a tad more air in those upper frequencies, the Yamahas bathed my room with musical energy, filling it with warm tones.

I played another LP, this time from the 3-LP set Vivaldi & Piazzolla, The Four Seasons (3LP, GFN Productions), performed by the Orchestre Filmharmonique du Québec conducted by Francis Choinière. This album offers a trifecta of quality: a beautiful 3-part gatefold package, an exquisite performance, and immaculate sound, the latter on full display via the Yamahas, which delivered a cohesive, spacious, bloomy presentation.

Within a very deep soundstage, the violins displayed their trademark amber hues, sounding sweet and richly resonant. Bass notes from the cello laid down a thick yet articulate bass foundation, while harpsichord notes tinkled realistically, offering a tactile impression of its strings vibrating. Through the Yamahas, this album offered some of the best string tone I’ve heard.

Finally, to get a grasp of the NS-800As’ ability to get down and dirty, I played the Breeders CD All Nerve (CD, 4AD). Across the songs, singer Kim Deal’s vocals were intimate, breathy, and explicit, as if I were inches away from her face. The music sounded substantial and propulsive. Inside a towering soundstage, instruments appeared well-separated, clearly focused in space, and almost radiant in their projected energy. Bass notes were solid, punchy, and rhythmically agile. The Yamahas made me realize how much less compression was used on this recording than on most pop recordings. All Nerve sounded great through the NS-800As—full-bodied and clear, with energy to spare. The Yamahas, it turns out, could also rock!

If you could put a Yamaha grand piano in a standmount, it would probably look and sound something like the NS-800A. The speaker is beautiful built, looks classy, and delivered sound that was full, tuneful, and rich, and I mean the latter in both the deep tonal sense and the sound quality one—the Yamahas are sophisticated, luxurious sounding machines. They sound, in a word, complete.

Yamaha’s $20,000 NS-5000 might be an even better speaker—at over three times the price of the NS-800A, it better be better—but considering its build and sound quality, the NS-800A may be all the speaker you need.