Floorstanding loudspeakers — Yamaha NS-F350

The NS-F350 is a floor-standing passive speaker from Yamaha with a three-way layout, built around a pair of bass drivers, a separate midrange and an aluminium dome tweeter, with a reflex port for bass loading. Yamaha designed it with home theatre in mind and matches it with the NS-P350 speaker package for surround systems, while it can equally work for two-channel music listening.

Key specs that matter

The woofers are two 16 cm (6-1/2 inch) cones and the midrange is a 13 cm (5 inch) cone, both with PMD diaphragms, and the tweeter is a 3 cm (1 inch) aluminium dome. Crossover points sit at 1.4 kHz and 3.8 kHz. Yamaha quotes a frequency response of 35 Hz to 45 kHz, where the top figure is the -10 dB point of the new tweeter, and a sensitivity of 88 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m. Nominal impedance is 6 ohms. Input power is rated at 100 W nominal and 200 W maximum. Each cabinet measures 220 mm wide, 1,157 mm tall and 339 mm deep and weighs 25.9 kg.

Engineering and use context

With a three-way split the midrange cone can handle the middle band on its own, so the two woofers handle only the region below it. The tweeter sits in a waveguide horn that Yamaha shaped to control directivity for film soundtracks. The cabinet has rounded sides, a shape chosen to reduce standing waves inside the enclosure, and the front baffle uses a double structure finished in mirror piano gloss, set against black side panels with curved contours. Bi-wiring is supported through large screw terminals plated in gold, so the two woofers and the upper pair of drivers can each receive a dedicated cable from the amplifier. The substantial weight reflects the double baffle and the four drivers inside. The PMD cone material is shared by the woofers and the midrange, giving the three cones a common construction across the lower and middle bands.

Pairing

The 6 ohm load and moderate efficiency suit an AV receiver or stereo amplifier rated for 6 ohm speakers, and the power figures above give a sensible upper limit for continuous drive. In a five-channel system the NS-P350 package, which provides the centre and surround speakers, keeps the driver types and finish consistent with the front pair. Using the bi-wire terminals needs two runs of speaker cable per side and the removal of the linking straps.

Alternatives

Yamaha's NS-F51 is a lighter two-way tower in the Yamaha range, using twin woofers, a soft dome tweeter and a 97 cm cabinet.