Yamaha CS-15
The verified record for the Yamaha CS-15 synthesizer is thin, and the two source sets attached to this model are misleading. The PDF excerpts are not about the CS-15 synthesizer. One is an Electro-Voice advertisement for the CS15 electret condenser microphone. The other describes a Power Physics CS-15 bass cabinet built around a Gauss 15-inch woofer. Neither is a Yamaha product, and neither documents this synth. The microphone specs (40-18,000 Hz response, 150-ohm balanced output, $225 list) stay off this page because they belong to a different product.
What survives is period advertising, and it is consistent across the issues we could pull. Yamaha ran the same copy in Modern Recording through the 1980-81 window: the August 1980 issue (p.2), October 1980 (p.2), November 1980 (p.53), January 1981 (p.39), and March 1981 (p.39). Modern Recording (November 1980, p.53) framed the line as affordable synthesizers built especially for live performances. The pitch is aimed at players rather than studios. It asks how serious you are about a synthesizer, concedes that not everyone has an unlimited budget, and promises "virtually unlimited expression" from a new line of affordable Yamaha synths built especially for live performance, developed with input from musicians who evaluated the prototypes. The CS-15 belongs to that family, the affordable, stage-oriented CS line that ran from the late 1970s into the early 1980s.
Beyond that advertising and the model's place in the CS family, there is no manufacturer spec sheet, no service manual, and no confirmed production dates, pricing, or circuit details to publish. Oscillator count, filter type, envelope configuration, and keybed size stay blank until a real document turns up.
A period owner's manual, dealer price list, or service schematic for the CS-15 is exactly the kind of material this page needs.
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