Hey guys! First of all, thanks for all your info! This site helped me a lot over the years and I think is time for me to pinch in with some personal opinions.
Today the HS8s have arrived in my store and I finally had the chance to listen and compare them with the old series. After a long and in-depth side-by-side testing, I came up with the following conclusions:
- the differences are barely noticeable, of course, and I think the HS8s are better sound-wise. They have a round, warmer and more calibrated bass and the highs are not as "spicy" as the HS80s. The mids are basically the same, the reproduction of instruments alone is as good and precise as before. But I noticed something rather strange when I let one HS8 on the left channel and one HS80 on the right channel run without audio signal: the background hiss is still present on the HS8s, but not as much as on the old series. There is also a small ticking noise in the tweeter of the HS8. For me it's a mystery because I connected both the HS8 and the HS80 in the same power outlet and even switched the channels, cables and I still didn't get rid of the noise. I didn't have this noise on any other studio monitors before, not even on Behringers!! I certainly hope that it's a problem with the electrical wiring and not with the HS8 itself or it's power supply and I'll do a test again, when I'll have the time, in a different room and compare the results.
- I also have a unpleasant surprise on the back of the HS8: the sound settings now include only room control (0db, -2db and -4db) and high trim (+2db, 0db, -2db). The rest (mid eq and low cut) are gone! So you'll need additional equipments or software if you want to deeply personalize the sound according to your room acoustics. Despite these, the level control, the input connectors (XLR and TRS), the bass port, and radiator are the same, so Yamaha probably used the same type of amps as before.
- construction-wise, the HS8 is still rugged as before, it has the same wood casing design and the same overall size as HS80 but there is a small difference in weight: HS8 has 12.5 kb and HS80 has 13.2kg. This difference backs up the theory of redesigned speakers. I don't know if you'll notice but in the rear panel photo you can see through the bass port that the HS8 has a different tweeter. (sorry for the bad quality photos btw).
- the prices are almost the same, HS8 costs 288.62 euro and HS80 costs 282.84 at the biggest professional audio equipment distributor from Romania.
If you ask me what I would buy right now, I'll tell you honestly that I'll prefer the HS80. Why? Mainly because HS80 have plenty of sound settings, I know them for many years, I sold plenty and they still are the best sellers in my store. I also tested them in many studios and even worked with them in some projects like producing electronic music and mastering instrumental soundtracks for movies. But who knows? I might change my taste some day...
As I said earlier I'll do more tests soon and I'll get some personal opinions from customers and friends and post them here.
All the best!
Cheers!