If you’re short on time and just want the highlights of this article, here it is:
The Yamaha NS-6490 3-Way Bookshelf Speakers are a great option for both professional and home entertainment use. The sound quality is excellent, with plenty of power and a wide frequency response. The 8″ high-output woofer provides a powerful bass, the 4″ midrange driver produces clear mids, and the 7/8″ balanced dome tweeter provides crisp highs. The speakers are also quite versatile, with multiple inputs, Bluetooth, and Chromecast built-in.
Overall, I think the Yamaha NS-6490 speakers are an excellent choice for those looking for a great budget pair of speakers. The sound quality is excellent and the features are impressive. That said, if you’re looking for more detail and range, you may want to look at higher-end models.
Quick link:
- https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/506995-REG/Yamaha_NS_6490_NS_6490_Bookshelf_Speaker_Pair.html
Now let’s get to its bolts and nuts.
Yamaha NS-6490 Review: Sound quality
Let me tell you something right off the bat.
The sound quality performance you'll end up getting from a speaker will always depend on your room acoustics - particularly room dimensions and speaker positions.
The impact of the combination of these two is actually so strong that in most cases, it doesn't even make sense to utter a single word on sound quality without speaking of them.
This is also why it's not unusual to see completely different reviews of the same speaker.
In one case the speaker might be placed in a sweet spot inside the room and hence the user might be satisfied. In other cases the same speaker might be ill placed and hence user might even have returned it.
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The point most people miss here is that it mostly isn't even about the engineering behind the speaker itself. It's about where you place the speaker inside which room.
So, in order to solve this problem, I've partnered with Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD Andrea Cicero from AC Acustica and created Soundton - a simple, 2D, browser accessible online speaker placement calculator.
With Soundton, now there's a way to figure the sound quality of most speakers before you buy them.
Read more about its working principles at soundton.com.
The end colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) acoustics.