Description
Not your ordinary small speaker system, the NX-B55 employs a unique cabinet shape and front-ported design that delivers exceptional frequency response with clear sound fields. A perfect companion for your PC or Mac, these powered speakers also work great with iPad, iPhone and Android devices.
Steve –
Fantastic sound and preferred over Bose Companion
These are great computer speakers! I have compared them back to back with the Bose Companion series and I feel these have a nicer balanced sound. Good mids, highs and bass with headroom to crank up without worry of muddy sound. The audio quality is typical Yamaha, which is to say revealing and clear.These would work well for general listening, gaming or music enjoyment.
Andrew Felling –
sound great for computer speakers
Excellent sound quality for computer speakers.
Ark L. –
Comparison with the Bose Companion 2 Series III
I bought these and the Bose Companion 2 Series III Speakers. I have had the same Sony SRS-D21 2.1 Speaker system for almost 5 years now, and I was quite content with that. I never realized how much in music I was missing out when I had those. I first received the Companion III Speakers in the mail, and tested them for about 5 days before these NX-50s arrived.What I liked about the Bose:1. Does not distort even at max volume for any type of music2. No feedback noise when volume dial is turned to the max and you are not listening to music3. No “Sharp” or “High” sounding when listening to songs that can bother some people4. Very balanced sound with slight bass emphasis5. The small indent on the volume knob is easily felt in the dark to know where you turned your dial to. I like this because I like keeping this symmetric.6. The volume knob also turns very solidly, and has a satisfying feel to it.What I disliked about the Bose:1. Sounds a little more muffled or “flat” when compared to the NX-50s. The Bose sounds very dull and has no liveliness to it (Keep in mind this is my opinion AFTER listening to the NX-50s. Before, I thought the Bose were great).2. I was not expecting the speakers to be able to hit deep lows when listening to bass heavy songs (If you want to get that earthshaking bass, get a 2.1 speaker system or install a 8″ or bigger sub woofer in your car). However, the bass is really thumpy and sounds unnatural to the song in most hiphop songs. For things likes Jazz and Blues, it was great.Now for the Yamaha NX-50s!What I like about the NX-50s:1. Amazing, “colorful” and lively sounding. Expecially when playing things like jazz, classical, or any songs that don’t have ridiculously low bass notes.2. Much louder and voices are MUCH crisper.3. Things like snaps, bells, and chimes all sound as if they are really in the room with you.4. Small white LED indicator light to let you know its on.What I disliked about the NX-50s:1. Feedback noise at max volume is really annoying. So keep your volume at around 70% or lower and adjust your master volume on your computer to your looking.2. Distorts at higher volumes for most songs I listened to.3. Volume dial feels like it is much poorer quality compared to the Bose dial.4. Bass rattles when it the notes are super low, and can make the voices in the songs feel like they are vibrating. Play some hip hop / rap and you will know what I mean.CONCLUSION:While both speakers are great, they both have their pros and cons. If you really don’t want to spend well over $100 for desktop speakers, go for the Bose. Just know you are sacrificing some sound quality in my opinion. The Bose are noticeably more flat sounding than the Yamaha’s. However, if you don’t listen to them side by side, I’m sure it won’t matter to you. The Yamaha Speakers sound amazing, but for more money. If you really enjoy listening to all the detail in a song, I would recommend going for the NX-50s. They are much louder, crisper, and more “surround sound” like. Just remember the pros and cons I found for both. Good luck choosing!
dparm –
Respectable performance at this price point, handily outperforms Bose and Logitech
For about a hundred bucks, these absolutely crush similar speakers from Bose and Logitech. While Yamaha is not as popular when it comes to computer speakers, they are no stranger to speakers in general and it’s apparent that the engineering and design didn’t suffer from corner-cutting.Sound is highly subjective so I won’t go into great detail here. What I will say is that despite the single small cone in each enclosure (the top portion is actually just for porting), the sound is quite detailed and doesn’t suffer from artificial boosting. While the small cone can’t reach very deep, Yamaha doesn’t play games like Bose does by running huge ports and internal tubing to produce muddy bass from small speakers. Instead, the sound naturally tapers off and clarity is retained in the mids and highs. If you want speakers that will thump and let you “feel” explosions, go buy a 2.1 system.Some reviewers complained of distortion at higher volumes. I’m not sure what kind of room they were using these in, and what the source was, but from a Lenovo laptop in an office/small bedroom, these are plenty loud. Perhaps for a larger room (like for use with a TV in a family room), they’re underpowered. These are only 7W per channel, so people need to manage their expectations. For near-field listening, meaning desktop/laptop computers, you’ll find they’re still loud enough even at half power.I didn’t have a chance to test the dual-input mixing. Frankly, I’m not sure what the use case for this is — possibly if you had some microphones and were doing a live Q&A session?Build quality seems sufficient at this price point. No cheesy cloth speaker grilles and the button + dial both operate smoothly. Again, for $100, I think the construction is at least as good as the competition. I’m not sure why the speaker-to-speaker connection cable is hard-wired as it sort of limits flexibility / later repair, but this probably won’t matter to most people.I ultimately returned these to get something with larger cones (read: more bass). However, if someone asked me to recommend a speaker for desktop/laptop use that won’t break the bank, I would probably suggest these. Yamaha has prioritized a clean and accurate sound over fake bass extension.
Interested Reviewer –
Outstanding computer speakers!
I had no idea what I was missing in sound quality on my computer speakers! When my previous speakers started going out, I decided to take a chance on these because I’ve had good experiences with Yamaha audio in the past. These computer speakers are amazing!I am not an audiophile at all, but playing some of the same songs on these as on my old Creative speakers the day before, I swear it sounds like there is more to hear – everything sounds “richer.” They literally weigh twice as much as my old Creative’s, too, which, when speakers are concerned, usually means higher quality. If you’re looking for some computer speakers, don’t hesitate – grab these! You’ll love them, and, more importantly, you’ll love the way your music and videos sound!P.S. Want more bass? I have a simple 3.5mm splitter and run a cord to a separate Yamaha YST-MSW5 subwoofer that’s 20 years old and still cranks out some great base! Although that particular subwoofer isn’t manufactured anymore, you could still get any normal standalone subwoofer (like those in the Yamaha YST product line) and pair it up with these speakers with a splitter and converter cable like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YEBK66.Just check your subwoofer specs to be sure of what kind of input it takes, and, if you can adjust it, be sure it’s cutting out at the point where your desktop speakers cut in. In other words, ideally, you only want a given frequency range being handled by either your desktop speakers or your subwoofer, but not both.
Slingoman –
It has Highs and It has Lows which means it is definitely not a BOSE
Very nice. What can you say other than it is a Yamaha. Always been excellent in Audio. Take it from an Audio Engineer for over 33 years.
bd –
Nice speakers for listening to music
I use an 8-year old Dell Latitude laptop for music in the kitchen while cooking / eating, and for general listening around the house. Just the standard audio card and drivers, nothing extra or upmarket. And these speakers sound great with it! Nice full sound and crisp highs. Don’t need to turn it up much to get good volume, so haven’t run into the situation the other reviewers mention about distortion at loud levels.One caveat… certain bass tones can be over-emphasized, I suppose due to a combination of the speakers’ loudness boost, the bass port, and just their small size. So things like announcers / people with deep voices talking / some low instruments, can sound “box-y” depending on how they were originally recorded. Very easily fixed with an equalizer, though. I use the Equalizer APO and its related Peace UI front end (found on SourceForge.net) to lower a certain range in the bass, and the sound smooths out very well. All in all an enjoyable low budget setup.UPDATE 7/19/2021 – This review is for the Yamaha NX-50 wired speakers. For some reason it also shows up in the listing for the Yamaha NX-B55 wireless Bluetooth speakers. They may or may not be the same as far as sound quality goes, I have no way of knowing. But it is interesting that, at least as of today, the listing for the NX-50 speakers no longer has Amazon as a seller. The Yamaha website still has info on the NX-50’s so maybe it is a (temporary?) supply problem. Anyway, the wired version continues to sound good.
c. lam –
I think it is overly Digital Signal Processed
I have been looking forward to this set of speakers because I need more bass and I don’t really want to spend $250 on computer speaker. Well, yes, there is the additional bass I was looking for. The sound is more present and have better clarity and reproduced the musical instruments with higher fidelity. The mid-range is a bit more pronounced but is still acceptable and the prominence is quite nice for vocal tracks. It’s like all the musical elements are in the same room as you.Then, what’s wrong? Simply put, the overall imaging is quite weird. In fact, very weird. It is as if a cheap virtual surround effect was activated. The sound stage was made unnaturally wide, the vocal is very frontal but kind of floating in your head. It is very difficult to describe. Quite tiresome to listen for any length of time. I tried different cables, tried with standalone digital audio players besides my computer, the weirdness is always there. Also tried to play with my computer’s various audio enhancements with no acceptable outcome. Set the volume to the recommended 2 o’clock position has no effect. Moving much further away, say, 10 feet, from the speakers helped a little, but as it is intended as speakers for my computer it will always stay close to my ears.Another way of describing the sound is as if some frequency bands are subdued. The sound is thin despite the additional bass. It can be said to be less musical. I know it is a computer speaker, I will accept all of these if the sound imaging is not so strange because it makes listening to any music tracks very intolerable. Then again, I don’t know if mine is defective or improperly tuned or if it just affects me but not other people. However, all my family members prefer my old speaker to this one. I returned it. Researching instead for a sub-woofer now.
Guy Peralta –
I am not an audiophile, so these speakers work for me.
I bought this for the two audio inputs. I have a dual monitor setup with an HDMI switch for the second monitor to be used for either a gaming console or for a PC. Previously, I had an two sets of speakers, one for the PC and one for the monitor that switches to a console. With these speakers, I can now have one set of speakers and even play audio from both my PC and Nintendo Switch at the same time. This feature saves me space, or the trouble of having to use an audio switch.There is a hum of static when the speakers are at very high volumes. This isn’t a problem for me since I’m never going to be in that range, but it might be a problem for others.The sound quality is fine for me. I’m not an audiophile so I can’t speak on the richness or depth of the sound. Theres bass, I can hear it. I wouldn’t describe these speakers as bassy.Edit: the hum is actually pretty annoying. The speaker manual recommends setting the speakers on high/max and setting the computer to a lower volume, and that the speakers loudness control would make the sound clear. Ya can’t do this with the static-y hum being ever present. I’d still have bought these speakers though.
Greg H. –
Update: Just plain great! Old: Great for low to moderate volumes.
Update: I’ve updated my review of these to 5 stars. I’ve had these for two years now and I feel like they just keep getting better. They are very loud for use at my desk and demonstrate a great range of frequencies for their size. I value my desk and floor space, and I wouldn’t trade these for anything.Old: I bought these in an effort to downsize from my Logitech Z-5500. I knew that anything smaller would be a compromise, and all of the reviews here that compared these Yamaha NX-50’s to the Bose Companion II were extremely helpful.These sound great at low to moderate listening levels, but they really distort when you crank the volume. This works perfect for me, I use prefer to use headphones for gaming and just wanted small speakers for music when I’m working during the day.I’ve heard the Bose Companion speakers in person years ago, and while they sound nice, I can hear the “Bose Magic.” They emphasize specific frequencies that we tend to associate with quality sound, but the rest is left behind. These Yamaha NX-50s sound much more level, they do emphasize a little bass, especially for kicks, but it’s not boomy. They sound full at low and moderate levels, and this is likely why they break up at higher volumes, they don’t have the cabinet space or extension to reproduce everything with the volume turned up.TL;DR: Buy these if you don’t need or want to turn the volume up, you won’t be disappointed.