Usher speakers

[thymanst]

i haven't seen much info on AK regarding Usher speakers, especially the newer ones (dancer line) - I'd seen them in various audio sites , but never investigated further. A pair of mini dancer 1's DMD came up locally on a nearby island and I purchased them.

Really surprised at the quality workmanship of them . The Walnut veneer that wraps around the back looks beautiful. Bases are all metal with cones and spikes. Gloss lacquer on the fronts with ports at bottom. Gold plated biwire jumpers. They very much remind me of sonus fabers. The drivers are of their own design (the woofer looks like the woofer sonus faber uses. The tweeters are the best part , they are a diamond desposit sandwiching metal.

Set them up out from the wall a little over 3 feet from back and side. I have a Vandersteen 2wq sub with their top end filters to handle the bottom end.

The sound is awesome. Great soundstage (wide and deep) the tweeters are really smooth - the instruments and voices are very defined. I've had many speakers set up in the same spot and these are as good as any. The are very "high end"

 

[soundmig]

Those are beauties! Usher makes some very fine speakers - enjoy!

 

[jhoyt]

I believe Usher is best known for their drivers, which you can get through Parts Express, and likely other sources as well. They are very highly regarded in the DIY speaker community, so I would completely believe that their complete speakers are fantastic. Yours certainly looks fantastic!

 

[SPEC2man]

My brother scored a set of Usher BE-718 and the matching stands. Holy cow! 8 inch bass driver and they really sing. Along with a fantastic look; are components that are way overbuilt. The result is a small speaker capable of big speaker sound. The stands weigh a ton as do the speakers, a testament of their build quality perhaps. I have been on the hunt for my own set of BE-718's for over a year now. I love my Proac D Two's but I would like a set of the Ushers for when I want to get loud and rowdy.

Two thumbs up !

 

[thymanst]

I was trying bookshelf speakers (Dali, kef) to use but they just didn't fill the area with sound . The usher are almost like bookshelfes with heavy duty stands - size wise - they definitely fill the room with sound....

 

[Ds2000]

One of my favorite ever is the Usher CP-777/2.

 

[cratz2]

My experience has been extremely positive. The 718s and 719 and of of the models with similar drivers in a floor-standing version all truly impressed me. Might even say they blew me away.

Most of the reviews I've read (which hasn't really been a tremendous number) have been positive as well. I think one of the aspects that might have initially held back their popularity, at least in print media, is the idea that they were likely reverse engineering the more pricey Scanspeak drivers noted for their use in sonus faber speaker line. How much of that is true I have no idea but many folks thought that was the situation.

As a side note, I bought a pair of DIY Eton-based speakers from a guy in the Boston area that was an early importer of Usher drivers and he built DIY speakers using the Usher drivers, a couple of which turned out to be some of their actual models that would be further developed and marketed several years later, notably the 718.

 

[thymanst]

They've got reviews in a lot of different places so they don't appear to be shy about providing samples. I read they have their own anechoic chamber . From reading it looks like they see a good idea, then reverse engineer ( I'm sure they change enough to get around copyright) scanspeak looking drivers, diamond tweeters, high end veneers - kind of taking the best of what others do and putting it together into one speaker. Either it's totally clever or completely questionable - I don't care myself, I like what they've come up with.

 

[jjohnson]

I've owned several pairs of Ushers and had some in that I sold for others. The S520 are some of the best small speakers that you can buy for short coin. The BE718 are some of the best standmount speakers that you can buy...period. Everything from fit-and-finish, to driver/crossover, pair matching is up there with any speaker that you can buy. However, I owned a pair of X-719 that had great fit-and-finish. I just never really liked how they sounded. They had a mid-bass hump that I couldn't handle.
Overall, Usher equipment is first rate.

 

[indyhawg]

Very nice score. I really like my BE-718s. They are one of the few speakers that plays everything I have thrown at it very well. I am looking forward to moving up the Usher line in the future.

 

[SoundOfSound]

They used to sell some Usher speaker kits at PE, I believe they still sell the drivers.

 

[tomlinmgt]

Anyone heard the cp-6311?

 

[thymanst]

I hooked up the mini dancers to a Parasound halo integrated and engaged the built in crossover in it at 60 hz - I have two velodyne subs hooked up to the Parasound also - the sound is spectacular - the ushers diamond tweeter throws so much air to everything that’s played and the two velodynes fill the bass clean and low - great combination

 

[bsandovalb]

Great speakers...l currently have the BE-10, BE-616, BE-718 and love how they perform... also had the CP-6391 and CP-6371 also excellent....

the be-10 are teyly outstanding!, they shine with almost any amp that I have shown at them -from viva solista, levinsons, audio research, pass labs xa30.8 (current amp), also sounded great with my vintage amps..

 

[MSW75]

Anyone know how to attenuate the tweetet on Usher Mini One DMD?
The tweeter is marked + 0.4; while the woofer is marked 0.0. Assuming those merkings is the attenuating.