Yamaha NS-200Ma (1978–1980)
The NS-200Ma is a large, 4-way, 6-driver floorstander from the late 1970s. Yamaha originally developed it in 1978 as a monitor for the German broadcasting service (IRB) before adding it to the consumer hi-fi line. It's a big box: roughly 1080 mm tall, 400 mm wide and 420 mm deep, weighing 49.5 kg with an internal volume of 160 litres. The cabinet is bass reflex. The drivers sit on a thick 30 mm baffle with rounded-off edges and no frame. The styling follows the rest of the NS range - beige main baffle, dark brown body, black finished cabinet.
The driver lineup is ambitious. Yamaha fitted a 300 mm cone woofer, a 160 mm mid-bass, a 90 mm cone midrange and a 35 mm ring radiator tweeter. Some configurations add upper-mid and super-tweeter units, and sources cite 12 cm and 9 cm upper mids and 3 cm and 30 mm high-frequency drivers. Crossover points are 500 Hz, 3 kHz and 6 kHz. Rated sensitivity is 91 dB, impedance is 8 ohms, and frequency response runs from 32 Hz to 25 kHz. Power handling is rated at 180 watts, with a 300-watt maximum. A pair of angled connectors at the back handles single-wiring. In the older studio versions, protection circuits were built into the bass multi-pin connector.
The documentation is thin. There's no original Yamaha brochure text or service manual specs in the archive, and no original price has been found. What's known comes largely from dealer listings and owner reports. A recurring complaint in those reports is underwhelming bass, particularly next to the NS-1000M, the follow-up model. One Audiokarma user reported that replacing the stock crossover capacitors with polypropylene types and rewiring the internals with better cable improved bass considerably. Another noted that the tweeters and metal-dome midrange can burn out if overdriven, and that spare parts are virtually unobtainable in the US. Owners typically have to source NOS parts from Japan or cannibalise parts units. The tight spacing around the speaker terminals has also drawn comment.
The exact spelling "NS-200Ma," with the lowercase "a," appears consistently in period and dealer sources. The studio versions, which were sometimes shortened for broadcast use and fitted with a protective cap, turn up occasionally as well. One dealer listing from Audiovintage asked €1,800 for a pair. That's a single asking price, not a market consensus. For anyone considering a pair, the crossover recap and bass-seal checks are the first things to address.
- Type: 4-way, 6-driver floorstanding bass reflex speaker
- Drivers: 300 mm woofer, 160 mm mid-bass, 90 mm midrange, 35 mm ring radiator tweeter (plus additional upper-mid/super-tweeter units in some versions)
- Crossover: 500 Hz / 3 kHz / 6 kHz
- Frequency response: 32 – 25,000 Hz
- Sensitivity: 91 dB
- Impedance: 8 ohms
- Power handling: 180 W rated / 300 W max
- Dimensions: 1080 × 400 × 420 mm (H×W×D)
- Weight: 49.5 kg
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.
Related Models
- Yamaha NS-100
- Yamaha NS-10M (1978–2001)
- Yamaha NS-144 (1978)
- Yamaha NS-30X
- Yamaha NS-310
- Braun AUDIO-1 (1965)
- Braun AUDIO-250 (1965)
- Magnavox Component Systems (1972)
- Acoustic Research AR (1967-1976)
- Acoustic Research 11