I bought the 1638's about a year ago second hand. I went with them becuase customers reviews were nothing but positive. I hooked it up to my Marantz reciever & I can't begin to tell you the clarity in sound from these floormounts. The vocals are warm & full. Bass is on the weaker side.

For a 15" woofer... the bass is notpunchy at all on 2ch listening.

These speakers have Crisp clean highs and punch in the mid-range as far as the bass most of the time I don't even use the sub. Something I found out playing in bands is in order to reproduce bass you have to have power and plenty of it.

The only weakness I can see besides under powering them is the wooden stabilizer to keep them from falling over,which is easy enough to make if the original one breaks.

Its always said that you get what you pay for.Well with Yamaha you always seem to get more and I think I got plenty. great sound and reliability!

Similar Products Used:

JBL older model and marantz

great sound, compact size, powerful

not much bass with weak amp

Although these speakers do not produce a great deal of bass with moderate power, they sound great with a good amp. I used to power these with a 100w JVC receiver and got great sound out of them, but after hooking up my Carver 250watt amp these speakers produced greater bass than my sony 120w 12" sub. excellent for space saving in a dorm.

Similar Products Used:

Carver amp, yamaha dsp, yamaha tuner, marantz amp, bose speakers, sony sub, sony cd player

Price...Excellent sound characteristics

Bass is weak for a 12" sub

Best Buy was having a clearance sale on these speakers so I was able to pick them up for $300 including a 5 yr warranty. I am still impressed by the quality sound that these speakers produce. I have had them now for 6 months and love them. But like everyone else says, they are heavy. They are extemely thin so placing them should be no problem. I would highly recommend purchasing a seperate subwoofer for these. They don't have the bass impact that you would think a 12" sub should have. But still the best speakers you can buy for the money.

clarity, solid construction, space saving, lots of bass.

n/a

I brought these speakers two days ago and these are worth
every penny, go to best buy and you can get them for under
300.00, the highs are not harsh like some other more exspensive desgins construction is solid quite heavy 47lbs
apiece lots of bass Note you need to place these in the corners of the room to go the best bass sound, and I also recommend a eq to adjust the sound chararistics of the room these are natural sounding speakers. go to yahama web site
for more information on these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

cewin vega, sony db-930.

Excellent Mid and high reproduction

Bass is good but I expected more from 12" woofers

I bought them from Best Buys for $360/pr. I think they are a good value for the money. They need a lot of power to get decent low end response from. I first connected them to a 65WPC receiver and the bass was lousy. Then I connected them to a 125WPC Kenwood and it was like night and day.

Similar Products Used:

Lots

Compact size, smooth sound

heavy

I don't know if you can get these as cheap as that last review ($270 a pair), I payed $469 a pair at Best buy.
What a nice speaker though, precise highs and midrange, the side firing 12" woofer works well with my Polk subwoofer still in use.
I would consider the side firing 12" to be more of a passive woofer than a dedicated one. Yamaha claims that you don't need a sub and they are probably right, I just chose to leave my sub hooked up and works nicely with the NS-A1638
One of the reasons I chose this speaker is because of the narrow width (about 7"). They look good next to my Mitsubishi 50" TV.
I originally bought the Bose 501-v (also a slim, tall speaker) and took them back the same day to get the Yamaha. Not that the Bose was all that bad, it just didn't seem like it was worth $518 for he pair.
Also the bose felt like an empty box of air compaired to the Yamaha at 45 lbs.
This is a great speaker comparable to units at twice the price.

Similar Products Used:

Polk M3 with Polk PSW 100 subwoofer

Crisp, clear sound.
Design is plain good
Good build quality

Should have a little bit of more Bass
Very heavy

I purchased the pair for $469.00 and found them to be worth the price. The highs are really clear but they lack bass considering the huge 12" they have. It look's really nice on my room, very modern, i just love it.

Similar Products Used:

Akay (old but really hot speakers, can't remember the model)

Excellent sound, very adaptable for all types of music. Highs mids and base blend well

Heavy, thats it

What a purchase. I love how well these speakers produce good clean "natural" sound. Some speakers are to bright, and some have to much mid, but these are just perfect. I don't like how the two woofers distort so easily if to much bass is put into them. The 12" side firing sub handles it fine, but the woofers distort a lot. If u like your music loud and with a lot of base, definitely get a sub, so u can turn the base going to these speakers down. This is what I did and it sounds WONDERFUL. These speakers are well designed, from the inside out, excellent dampening, and they look good to! Highly recommended for a home theater, for loud rock, definitely get a sub, don't have your mains do all of the work.

Beautiful mid to high range. Bass is very good for non-amplified woofer.

Heavy, and the bass isn't as tight as it could be.

These speakers are magnificent. I have tried others of similar price and these are by far the best. Their narrow width make them perfect for my dorm room setup and they produce more than enough sound for an apartment. All types of music and movies sound terrific on these. I would recommend these to anyone who is looking for a great pair of quality speakers.