Yamaha NX-U10 USB Powered Stereo Speaker

Yamaha NX-U10 USB Full Review

When I first spied the NX-U10 USB powered speaker system at CES, I was pretty impressed. A portable speaker system that can be powered by the wall, batteries, OR USB? That's a pretty nifty idea. Of course, in a setting as noisy and crowded as CES, there isn't really a chance to listen to anything critically. The moment I got back, I started asking after a review unit. The NX-U10 may not be the ultimate in high fidelity playback but it has a lot going for it - looks, portability, and ease of use. For the person on the go that wants a break from headphones or just wants to share their music with someone else, the NX-U10 fits the bill nicely.

Build Quality

The Yamaha NX-U10 feels heavier than it looks and is constructed mostly out of hard plastic. My review unit came in silver though black is also available. The majority of the body has a matte finish with the two ends with a lighter glossy finish separated from the main body by a rubber gasket. I tried to take the unit apart to give you an idea of the insides, but removing the screws did not separate the two halves of the case. I probably only needed to be a little more forceful with it but I don't like sending review units back to manufacturers in bite sized pieces.

The front of the unit sports a metal grill that protects the two drivers and the two "swing radiators". Many of you may be familiar with the concept of a passive radiator. Much like a port, a passive radiator is used to increase the bass response of a speaker by being tuned to resonate at a frequency below the frequency response of the powered drivers. This effectively extends the depth of the bass of a speaker (ports do basically the same thing). Usually, a passive radiator looks just like a normal driver from the front (I'd be willing to bet that many people have speakers with passive radiators and don't know it) but from the back you can quickly tell they have no magnet structure, aren't wired to anything, and sometimes don't even have a basket. The "swing arm" radiator works much in the same way except that instead of a sealed box with a "fake" driver, it utilizes a panel shaped diaphragm that is connected to the cabinet at one side. Basically, they have cut out three sides of a rectangle and the pressure created by the driver pushes and pulls the cut out portion to create the extra bass.

The unit can either lie flat or can be propped up on what looks to be the battery cover. Inside that small hatch are the USB port and a battery connection. Rather than the batteries taking up the whole bay (as you are used to with every other component) the batteries load in to a very flimsy plastic holder which is in turn held into place by a small hook on a spring. There isn't quite enough room to plug in the batteries and the USB cable simultaneously. Yamaha provides a small rubber foot to attach to the battery cover/stand to keep it from sliding. Actually they provide two. They should have included more since nothing short of glue was going to keep it attached. Mine fell off repeatedly so I wouldn't get too attached to it if I were you.

One side of the unit houses the volume control and a 3.5mm input jack (labeled "portable"). You can hook up anything that has a headphone jack with the supplied cable. The other side houses the power button. The only oddity I cam across was that you scrolled down to increase the volume and up to decrease it. It is a small thing but after the first few times you try to turn something down and max it out instead, you'll learn.

Setup and Use

USB was designed to make connecting everything a snap… and sometimes it actually does. The NX-U10 had absolutely no problems connecting with my laptop. According to the manual, Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and Mac OS 10 and 9 should be plug and play. There are instructions for Me and 98SE that aren't that complicated and should be easy for most anyone to follow. For me, it loaded up immediately with no problems or glitches.

You can connect the unit to your computer via USB which will supply power and stream the music. You can connect the USB cable to a two prong outlet adapter and power it from the wall and stream music via the "Portable" 3.5mm jack on the side (any ol' MP3 player or iPod will do). Or you can forgo power cables completely and use the battery pack with 4 AAA batteries. I tested out all the different methods of powering and connecting the unit and found no sonic differences. The only problem I ran into was that the USB cable, while fine for connecting to a laptop, was FAR too short for extension cord duties. Yamaha might want to think about providing a longer cable or bundling in an extender of some sort. As it stands you need to be within a meter or so of an outlet if you want to use wall power.

The NX-U10 is designed to be portable, and in that it excels. At just over a pound, it is light and easy to carry in its black velvety case. There isn't, however, enough room in that case for the AC adaptor or even the cables (well, you could get them in there but there really isn't room). The slim design (just under 10" long and less than 1 1/2" wide) means that it will easily fit in any laptop case, backpack, or larger purse. From a design and usability standpoint, the NX-U10 does just about everything perfectly.

Listening Tests

I live with my laptop and have been known, I’m ashamed to say, to use the built in speakers for playback upon occasion. The occasions are almost solely because I'm attempting to share audio with a person. For individual listening, I generally use headphones. But it is hard to watch a funny You Tube video with a friend with headphones. You just need speakers. And the ones built into the laptop are woefully inadequate. My first goal was to test this whole "90Hz" claim. Out of a box this small, I don't expect to see much in the way of bass output regardless of what sort of fancy passive radiator technology they use. Sticking in my trusty Rives Test CD 2, I found, much to my surprise, that there was some audible and well defined output at 100Hz, and something that would pass for output at 80Hz (there is no 90Hz test tone). This leads me to believe that the 90Hz claim has merit.

I used the NX-U10 for all my listening during the evaluation period. I listened to music like the Blue Man Group and Marillion. The NX-U10 came in handy when checking my editing of the AVRant podcast. I used them during browsing of You Tube and watching videos like the Afterworld series. All in all, I hear what you'd probably expect before reading this review. The sound quality was at least an order of magnitude above the built in speakers but it couldn't really touch the sound of high quality dedicated computer speakers like the Swans M200A. Of course they cost a fraction of the price of the Swans. It should be noted that I never experienced any hissing or popping that can be associated with computer speaker in general.

The highs were crisp and clean if a bit fatiguing at high volumes. When comparing directly to my computer speakers, I was literally hearing notes (bass) that just wasn't there. A step up from your included speaker? No. Try a flight of stairs… or two. Because the NX-U10 can't reproduce the lowest bass well, sometimes lower instruments like kick drums sounded hollow and flat. The midrange did seem recessed as well. What was really nice was how loud the NX-U10 could play. This unit would have no problem filling a dorm room or office with sound (not so loud that you couldn't talk over it but not so soft that you are straining to hear the lyrics) which is pretty much where I see this unit living. The NX-U10 actually provides a spectacularly good stereo image (considering its size and the space between the drivers) as long as you are facing the unit in a near-field listening environment. This was especially evident when I was listening to the Blue Man Group's Las Vegas 4 Song Sampler that I picked up at CES last year. Not only did the NX-U10 provide a very nice reproduction of all the drums and percussive elements, but the pans were extremely well done even when leaning back in my office chair. Extremely impressive.

Recommendations

Other than the suggestion for a longer USB cable or some sort of extender to make wall power a practicality, I was disappointed in the battery holder. I didn't realize you could actually make plastic that thin. There is no way that I can see you can transport the battery holder without breaking it. You'll have to keep batteries in it and have it installed in the unit for protection. Also, the rubber "non-skid pad" should be integrated into the unit rather than installed by the user. Any wrong move knocked the thing off and I wouldn't be surprised if both the two Yamaha provides were lost within the first week of use.

Conclusion

When doing research for this review, I took a look at some of the other laptop speakers out there. What I found was a bunch of offerings that looked like your basic computer speakers without the bass module in a carrying case. I don't know about you, but when I'm traveling, I don't need another bag. The NX-U10 can be powered completely by a USB connection though it didn't seem to drain my laptop's battery any faster than any other USB device. The portability is outstanding, the aesthetics are fantastic, and the performance is above my expectations. This would be the perfect speaker solution for the businessperson or student on the go that wants more than their laptop can provide for music playback or even presentations. I can also see this system coming into use during picnics or other outdoor activities with the battery pack and an MP3 player.

Yamaha NX-10 USB Powered Stereo Speaker

$179.99

Yamaha Electronics Corporation, USA
6660 Orangethorpe Avenue
Buena Park, CA 90620
(714) 522-9105
www.yamaha.com

About Yamaha
Yamaha Electronics Corporation (YEC), USA, based in Buena Park, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha. YEC offers Home Theater components and systems, featuring A/V Receivers, Amplifiers, DVD/CD, Speakers, Mini-Systems, Video Projection, as well as A/V & IT Convergence Products

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

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Metric	Rating
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value