Neumann KH 120 A Vs Yamaha HS8: Review & Full Comparison

As of 10 Jan 2025, experts prefer Neumann KH 120 A over Yamaha HS8, but both Studio Monitors have solid expert endorsements.

As per this month's meta ranking, Neumann KH 120 A received 4 recommendations: from woodandfirestudio.com (14 Nov 2023), Gearank (7 Nov 2024) Careers In Music (27 Nov 2024) and 1 other. By contrast, Yamaha HS8 received only 3 recommendations from woodandfirestudio.com (14 Nov 2023), Hyperbits and Gearank (7 Nov 2024).

Rank	Change	Price	Studio Monitor	higherhz.com	Pocket-lint	woodandfirestudio.com	Hyperbits	Gearank	Careers In Music	Music Radar	PianoDreamers	Music Critic	Popular Science
4	-	Check price	Neumann KH 120 A The Neumann KH 120 A is a bi-amplified speaker system designed for accurate and detailed sound reproduction, making it ideal for critical listening applications in professional recording studios, post-production facilities, and broadcast environments.	-	-	1	-	12	4	-	-	9	-
10	-	$399	Yamaha HS8 The Yamaha HS8 Studio Monitor is a powerful and reliable speaker with accurate sound reproduction and complete response control, making it ideal for professional use in larger studio spaces or for live performances.	-	-	2	6	7	-	-	-	-	-

Curious to see this month's entire Studio Monitors ranking? It's here

About our ranking methodology TLDR: We read top 10 'Best studio monitors' articles on the Internet, and combine all the recommendations into one mega-list. The more recommendations a product has, the higher it ranks. In more detail:

• Step 1: identify experts. Robots determine most respectable sources on the Internet, then the team manually chooses the best ones.
• Step 2: import experts' rankings. Robots try to import the rankings that experts independently publish. Since robots inevitably mess up, team manually checks the data.
• Step 3: exclude unrelated products. In their creative wisdom, experts often tend to include accessories or alternatives in their ranking. Our team has to manually exclude products that don't match product category.
• Step 4: determine if experts are endorsing the same product. For variations of the same products our team needs to determine whether the products are the same or not (is iPhone 13 64GB and iPhone 13 128GB the same model or not?)
• Step 4: assign weights to expert endorsements and aggregate opinion. Currently we use ranking methodology 0.7.2: being included in the expert ranking scores points. Being ranked #1 carries a lot more points. Being included in top 3 also carries bonus points. Then the point value of every endorsement is adjusted by a geometric progression with common ratio slightly below 1. In other words, product ranked #1 carries a lot more weight than product ranked #6; product ranked #6 carries slightly more weight than product ranked #8.
• Step 5: add it all up.
• Step 6: do it all again in a month.

Endorsement summary:

• On 14 Nov 2023 woodandfirestudio.com ranked Neumann KH 120 A as #1 and Yamaha HS8 as #2

  Rank	Studio Monitor	Comment
  #1 out of 10	Neumann KH 120 A	Best Studio Monitors
  #2 out of 10	Yamaha HS8	Best studio monitors for semi-professional use
  ...	...	...

  Source: woodandfirestudio.com
• On 7 Nov 2024 Gearank ranked Yamaha HS8 as #7 and Neumann KH 120 A as #12

  Rank	Studio Monitor	Comment
  ...	...	...
  #7 out of 12	Yamaha HS8	The Best Studio Monitor under $500
  ...	...	...
  #12 out of 12	Neumann KH 120 A	The Best Studio Monitors under $1000

  Source: www.gearank.com
• On 27 Nov 2024 Careers In Music ranked Neumann KH 120 A as #4

  Rank	Studio Monitor
  ...	...
  #4 out of 8	Neumann KH 120 A
  ...	...

  Source: www.careersinmusic.com
• On 16 Feb 2024 Music Critic ranked Neumann KH 120 A as #9

  Rank	Studio Monitor
  ...	...
  #9 out of 10	Neumann KH 120 A
  ...	...

  Source: musiccritic.com
• Hyperbits ranked Yamaha HS8 as #6

  Rank	Studio Monitor	Comment
  ...	...	...
  #6 out of 20	Yamaha HS8	Best Advanced Monitors ($400-$1000/pair)
  ...	...	...

  Source: hyperbitsmusic.com

After counting and adding up the 99 expert endorsements of the January rankings, Neumann KH 120 A outranks Yamaha HS8. This is not to say that Yamaha HS8 is a bad option. Like Neumann KH 120 A, it is recommended by experts, but less.