In 1978 Yamaha first introduced the NS-10 design with the iconic white woofer. At that time they were marketed as home audio compact bookshelf speakers. And they did a terrible job at it. Long listening sessions proved fatiguing to the ear, due to tweeter-woofer alignment/phasing issues and the harsh quality of the tweeter, when used with the original crossover.
But in the new millennium Yamaha started having trouble finding the wood pulp to make the white woofer cones, and they weren’t yet prepared to release a new model. Quickly they put together a new line of active black-woofer monitors, the MSP series. They were well built and great for mixing, but sounded smoother, and people were missing the NS-10 raw feel of present midrange - the “Yamaha NS-10 sound and looks”.
The explosive popularity of the Yamaha NS-10M speaker system for near- field monitoring in professional sound studios throughout the world has resulted in the development of the NS-10M STUDIO model. The NS-10M SUTDIO maintains the quality and performance of the original NS10M, but has been refined and redesinged specifically for professional applications. To begin with, you can throw away the tissue paper. The high-end output of the NS-10M STUDIO has been modified - on the basis of extensive testing and feedback from the field - for optimum balance in the studio control room.
Originally released circa 1982, Yamaha discontinued the production of the Yamaha NS-10M speakers (somewhere before 2003, reference needed), and replaced them with the Yamaha MSP5, and Yamaha MSP10 studio monitors. In spite of being discontinued, the NS-10M are still widely used in studios and even won Yamaha Corporation a Grammy in 2007 for their technical excellence and impact on the recording industry. You can find them online sold as a balanced pair on eBay selling for around $550.
