Name: Yamaha YST-SW215PN 8in 150 Watt Powered Subwoofer, Magnetically Shielded, Advanced Active Servo Technology, Bass Selector, Piano - Black
Brand: Yamaha
SKU: YAYSTSW215PN
Price: 199.95 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.8 (15 reviews)

Yamaha YST-SW215PN 8in 150 Watt Powered Subwoofer, Magnetically Shielded, Advanced Active Servo Technology, Bass Selector, Piano - Black

Yamaha YST-SW215PN

Yamaha

Yamaha YSTSW215PN 8in 150 Watt Powered Subwoofer, Black

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Yamaha YST-SW215PN 

Top Rated Gear: Yamaha YST-SW215PN 8in 150 Watt Powered Subwoofer, Magnetically Shielded, Advanced Active Servo Technology, Bass Selector, Piano - Black Buy now & save $30. Power Type: Active Subwoofer, Size: 8", Speaker Type: Compact Subwoofer

Excellent speaker,sounds great paired with Yamaha stereo receiver RX 396,exceded my expectations for a speaker system in this price range. I have many Yamaha products. I have great luck with Yamaha products.

excellent speaker for the price

I bought these speakers 2 years ago.I always thought that they sound fantastic.Now I'm no expert and almost 70 years old so I know my hearing isn't as sharp on the ends of the spectrum, but I know what I like and these speakers sound darn good to me, as good as any of the many sets I've owned (Acoustic Research,Fisher,Sanyo,Kenwood to name just a few). I can close my eyes and the performance sounds like it's right in front of me.Give 'em a try. You'll "see"(hear) what I mean.

Is it live or Yamaha NS-6490

Bought these speakers for my garage with a Yamaha R-S202BL and the sound is amazing for the price. I added a second set of speakers and the sound was even better. These are nice speakers for the price and happy I purchased them. I wouldn't recommend them for home theater but for a cheap second system for your garage or workshop they are amazing.

Great Speaker Set for the Price

They aren't pretty but they sound good.

Very large for bookshelf speakers and black vinyl with no simulated wood grain these are some ugly ducklings.

The woofer and mid range are very generic with cloth surrounds and pearlized poly coating and of course the all very famous mylar tweeter that is found in 100's of budget speakers. The cloth surrounds are really showing a sense of budget and vintage design, they'll most likely not rot out like foam woofer surrounds. I am guessing they went with a classic design approach in an acoustic suspension setup, if they used rubber surround the woofer would have had more slop over the cloth which provides more cone control for a tighter taught bass punch. The poly coating on the woofer and mid doesn't do much besides aesthetics and prolong the lifespan of the drivers making them more resilient to humidity and drying out. Although the poly coating may help add weight and stiffness to the cones mass and in the end giving a tad smoother frequency response since the woofer rolls off with no crossover and the mid just uses a first order.

I came across a post of some guy who dismantled his speakers so without taking mine apart i know the crossover is just a simple yet effective 1st order with capacitors on the mid and tweet. I would have liked to see a resistor on the tweeter to tame the mylar edginess unless its mounted behind the tweeter itself. I know my pair of NS-6490s are brand new and need to be played and broken in longer so hopefully the tweet will lose some of that edginess and have a little more sparkle once the capacitors get seasoned. The gentleman that had his speakers apart also noted that Yamaha had made some sort of a mistake and reversed polarity on the mid range. If Yamaha did do this it wasn't by error it may have been done so the bass frequencies would be out of phase going through the mid range since they're not needed there it's a mid range not a mid bass. While the woofer is running without a crossover and the first order on the mid range there isn't a steep slope between the bass and mids so there's no hole and transition between drivers is smooth. Secondly the reverse polarity can be to keep the mid range and woofer out of phase because the woofer has no crossover and will most likely play 500-1500hz which can make the mid sound pretty lousy.

The woofer does a fair job at producing what it's supposed to until it runs out of steam, while i never had 3-way speakers before the mid range is a paper cone and does instruments and vocals really well giving these speakers a sense of warmth and realism which is great because this is the most audible range in human hearing. The NS-6490 finishes off the audio range by using a mylar film type tweeter which is ok as I mentioned while these are still new the tweets are edgy but are sometimes known to mellow out and have nice sparkle to them. I guess better than Yamaha going with a paper cone tweeter even though I have heard great sounding paper tweets.

I really can't knock these down for what they are, priced ok not the best looking they are definitely the largest bookshelf speakers I have seen well I knew dimensions so thats no flaw and they are acoustic suspension enclosures with an 8" woofer therefor they will be quite large in size.

I think Yamaha met their design goal, I heard they been making the NS-6490 for over 20 years and although odd to be producing speakers this large in a market of people buying sound bars and sound docks there is evidently a market of people looking for something different.

What caught my eye was the classic 3-way design and knew that Yamaha makes a good product based that along with other positive reviews I went for the plunge. I am glad I did cause they sound great even though the large size is still growing on me.

Yamaha's take on a classic 3-way speaker

This good little sub takes care of accurately reproducing the lower music octaves, which small speakers cannot do.
 
For general TV,  studio monitors,  or smaller-room stereo systems,  I confidently give it five stars!

The Perfect  Monitor Sub

I bought this YST-SW215, new, December 2004, at our local electronics store. It is tied into with my recent Denon AVR-S910W, having four JBL Bookshelf, 3-Way speakers plus their 3-way dual 5" center speaker. Having the power button on the front of this Yamaha sub woofer, plus the other adjustment knobs, is perfect. This 8" sub woofer, tied in with my 5.1 surround system, is perfect. Since I upgraded my surround speakers and AVR early this year, I am tempted to add another Yamaha SW215, if still available.

Awesome!

WOW these 3-way speakers are fantastic. Great highs, lows, and mids. I am hearing instruments in my music that I did not know where there. Some reviews say that the highs are "too bright", I wound say that those folks are just not used to hearing ALL of the music available in their recorded medium. Not to mention the great price compared to other name-brand 2-way speakers.

WOW - Great highs, lows, and mids

Great Sound

I have always found that three way speakers have a real nice sound to them. I believe the mid-range is sometimes easily forgotten. I have terrific sound with these speakers on a secondary system that I have setup with a YST-SW216 subwoofer and the sound is absolutely wonderful! The price for these speakers could easily by double the amount charged. 

I love these speakers!!!

Amazing Set of Three Way Speakers

First off I would like to say that these speakers are real nice on sound and appearance!! Some time was put into making these speakers. Now I am using these with the rx-a2020 which will soon be replaced with rx-a3040 and I will add that there is a difference when you use the front effect speakers the sound stage is a lot better when you are not using them. because when you don't the receiver downmixes the sound into the front channels so in other words its overtime for the front speakers. also I will add that the speakers can handle a lot of power too. so they are not weak at all.

Well suited 9.2 and 11.2

Very good bass. Handy front mounted controls. Beautiful glossy piano black finish. Easy to set up--connected to receiver.

Yamaha YST-SW215 Pinao Black

Was really excited when I got this, 2 things though I didn't like. 1)No instructions on how to pair with my soundbar, had to call support for them to tell me to turn it off, hold -sub button on my remote for x amount of seconds blah blah, not in the owners manual how to do this. 2)I blew this speaker in less than a month, no amp, just plugged into my soundbar. I guess this was more for quality than bang, maybe I got a defective one,maybe its not built for hip hop music turned up real loud. Until I get my replacement, and it last a little while, I dont recommend it for any room living room sized plus, close space, great though.

Not what I thought.

I get a thrill at feeling the Poof comeing out the side port. The louder the Poofyer.
I believe that the Active Servo System and sound dispersion is what sets this subwoofer apart from others. I kicked out my last "front firer" (second sub. used with RX-V675)For lack of thump, behind the listening recliner. Yah, I know how to live. Paid twice as much for it in favor of my now new YST-Sw012. We will see and hear a big difference when it arrives. I am sure of it! Well, hopefully

Perfect poof - out the port

I use this unit with a pair of Audioengine 5A+ in the medium sized salon on board my 40 foot yacht. If you listen to music (classical as I do, or heavy beat rock) this subwoofer is perfect. If you prefer to listen to earthquakes and knock down walls, you should try something else.

A Rare Product

I use this with my home sytem and don't think for a minute that the size is any comparison to the quality or amount of sound thatcomes out of this thing . It rocks !