In this Yamaha HS7 vs PreSonus Eris E5 review, we compare these two relatively affordable studio monitors with accurate mixes, solid build, and good room coverage.
Yamaha’s HS Series is a common feature in many studio monitor reviews. Like others in the series, it provides a very honest and precise reference, assuring you of a great sonic platform that music makers can work with throughout their mixing process. The Yamaha HS7 monitor speaker goes for about $330 while the PreSonus Eris E5 retails roughly $130 so they are not exactly comparably priced. Features and performance wise, you will see the advantage shift towards the HS series monitor speaker. Still, both of these speakers can still provide you with good performance, with high-definition sounds, accurate mixes and they lend themselves easily to mixed usage.
Here is a comprehensive comparison of the Yamaha HS7 vs PreSonus Eris E5.
Yamaha HS7
The Yamaha HS7 delivers a powerful sound at a relatively accessible price of just over $300. On top of the outstanding sound, it has a solid build that is clean and minimalist as well as a constellation of design and functions that should be on many music makers’ wish list.
The Yamaha HS7 is mountable monitor speaker with a high-performance amp unit that smoothly matches to the transducer. It has a bi-amp design featuring separated dedicated amps for the tweeter and the woofer. The amp unit assures you of good consistency and reliability of sound. You will consistently get a high-resolution sound out of this and the response across the sound spectrum is relatively flat.
It uses some of the latest Yamaha transducers that give you a very smooth response over a wide spectrum of bandwidth. The advanced magnetic field design in the Yamaha HS7 ensures you get seamless and natural sonic transitions.
Like other speakers in the HS series, the HS7 has response controls that you can easily adapt to a room’s surface acoustics, no matter its size or shape. This speaker also accommodates various balanced and unbalanced input sources, including XLR and TRS phone jack inputs.
The enclosure design gets rid of unwanted resonance and adds to the accuracy of the sound reproduction, thanks to the dense MDF material used in the construction which has a damped acoustic response.
The port design in the Yamaha HS7 speaker contributes to the overall clarity of the sound and eliminates any unwanted noise.
PreSonus Eris E5
Like other speakers in the Eris series, the Eris E5 enables you to create music with very accurate mixes. In fact, compared to other speakers in the same class and price range, it provides a surprisingly superior performance.
In spite of the cheap price of the PreSonus Eris E5, you will get an authentic mix out of this studio monitor with a consistent quality on a multiplicity of playback systems be they headphones or even TV commercial soundtracks.
The Eris E5 also ships with an included Studio One Prime plus the Studio Magic plug-in suite. It has a 5.25-inch composite woofer for a great sound with minimal bass distortion.
This is accompanied with a 1-inch tweeter that gets rid of the harshness of the sound to belt out fairly well balanced and high frequency sound.
Input terminals in the PreSonus Eris E5 included a ¼-inch inputs, balanced XLR as well as unbalanced RCA inputs.
Its acoustic tuning controls allow you to adjust sound to suit your unique mixing environment. There is sufficient volume and headroom thanks to its 80-watt, class AB amplification.
However, this is smaller speaker and it might not give you an optimal performance in garage-sized studios.
Design Comparison
Although both speakers have similar consumer sentiments and high ratings in spite of the price differences, the Yamaha HS7 is the bigger speaker here with a 6.5” cone woofer along with a 1” dome tweeter. It has a frequency response of between 43Hz and 30kHz and flexible input options including XLR and TRS phone jack inputs. It is also designed with Room Control along with High TRIM response control user options. Overall, this is a powerful and feature-packed studio monitor.
Physically, the Yamaha HS7 is impressively designed, a solid build, and is available in black and white colors. The front part has the woofer and the smaller tweeter. The back of the speaker has response controls including those for room surface acoustics as well as a range of inputs, including for XLR and TRS phone jacks. All the controls have been clearly labelled for ease of use.
The PreSonus Eris E5 is a slightly smaller studio monitor, which is available in black color. Outwardly, it looks rather conventional. The box is front-ported with a 5.25-inch Kevlar-coned woofer.
Like the Yamaha HS7, the front part features a woven composite woofer and a smaller tweeter. The 1-inch tweeter is an ultra-low mass silk dome feature that isolates the harshness to produce a clean high frequency sound and is protected behind a metal grille.
Like the Yamaha, the PreSonus also has acoustic tuning controls that helps you realize an optimal mixing environment.
Input options in the PreSonus Eris E5 include a balanced XLR, an unbalanced RCA as well as ¼-inch inputs. You will, therefore, get all the desired input options with the Eris E5.
Performance Comparison
The PreSonus Eris E5 has 80-watt Class AB amplification (with 45-watt LF and 35-watt HF) compared to the Yamaha HS7 which has a 95-watt amplification (consisting of a 65-watt LF and a 35-watt HF). With these specs, you can get a usable frequency response in the range of 53Hz to 22kHz. The maximum is relatively loud.
The PreSonus Eris E5 has the power and connectivity options to drive your usage to new heights. You can even tailor the frequency response.
The PreSonus Eris E5 gives a smooth sound with lots of detail. You will get vocals that come out pristine but the bass does not give you depth that you would get with larger studio monitors. However, it still gives you a tight and solid sound. The Eris E5 belts a good sound and is comfortable to work with over a long duration of time. The imaging is excellent and it has a clear and well-focused mid-range. You get detailed highs with the Eris E5s without a dint of aggressiveness, something that you would experience in the cheaper monitors.
Performance-wise, the HS7 gives you some advantage over the Eris E5 which is better suited for smaller rooms. However, the Yamaha HS7 still works for both small and large studios and you won’t have to worry about problems with an extended bass that could have the negative impact of magnifying the acoustic problems in your studio, particularly if it is an untreated room.
The Yamaha HS7 not only has a larger 6.5-inch subwoofer but it also has a wider frequency response as well as more power from its Class AB bi-amp system that totals 95 watts, including 60 watts LF and 35 watts HF. It also features Room Control as well as High TRIM response controls.
Terminals
Audio inputs in the PreSonus Eris E5 include a choice of balanced ¼-inch TRS jack, a balanced XLR as well as an unbalanced phono socket. Power comes in via an IEC socket. The Eris E5 also has a red slide switch for selecting the right mains voltage.
The Eris E5 also has a well-appointed rear-panel adjustment. There is a gain control, common in many studio monitors, as well as an acoustic space switch that you can use to set optimal bass response and compensate for the placement of the monitor speaker close to walls or corners.
Pros and Cons
PreSonus Eris E5
Pros
- Features a simple and very attractive design. The design is unassuming and the build quality is great.
- Great flexibility in the range of inputs as well as in mixing and control
- Can belt out much more volume than you’d expect from a speaker of this size
- Good clarity and accuracy, you get authentic reproductions.
- Get natural, good quality sounds
- Has a front-firing bass
- You get reasonably good quality for just over $130
Cons
- The PreSonus Eris E5 has an underwhelming bass and is better suited for use in smaller studios
- The Eris E5 has a narrow sweet spot
Yamaha HS7
Pros
- A solidly engineered reference monitor
- Powerful enough for use in both small and large rooms
- Will accept a variety of inputs
- Great sound quality with good clarity and accuracy
- An attractive design made from high quality materials
Cons
- Users have reported a mid-range that is not quite optimal which ends up creating a two-dimensional sound rather than the atmospheric sound that you’d get in high end speakers.
- They have a narrow sweet spot
The Verdict
Both of these are impressive, low-priced studio monitors with good accuracy and which can work in different recording environments. We would recommend the Eris E5 for smaller rooms where ramping up the bass extension would simply cause problems in the room. However, if you are looking for a reasonably powerful reference monitor for larger studios or garage-sized studios, the Yamaha HS7 would suffice.
Conclusion
Both the Yamaha HS7 and the PreSonus Eris E5 are low priced monitor speakers, costing roughly $330 and $130 respectively. In spite of the cheap price, they still give a good sound with fairly good fidelity. In fact, if your studio isn’t well-treated, you won’t notice significant differences in quality with the higher priced models.
The Yamaha has a superior performance edge over the Eris E5, with a clean and minimalist design and is well engineered with the Yamaha reliability. It performs reasonably well in comparison to competitors that are similarly priced. You can easily use this in both smaller and larger rooms.
Both speakers have a large range of inputs. The Yamaha HS7 is versatile and will work in a range of recording environments.
