Usher S520

Hi, Folks, about 3 weeks ago I purchased a pair of Usher S520s. I found them on audiogon. The seller was selling them new for $280. a pair. By coincidence the seller was located here in Chicago, so I gave him a call. It turned out it was a retail shop that was closing, after only been open a little over a year. I was unaware that this shop even existed. He(one of the owners) was quite bitter and wanted to get out of the audio business forever claiming there was no money to made in this business. He said traffic was good but very few would actually buy anything. He was sitting on a huge inventory and had to get rid of it. At the time that I bought the Ushers he said that he'd already sold aprox. $160,000. worth of gear on audiogon.

Once his inventory is sold he and his partner(s) intend to open a shoe shop,yes I said a shoe shop. at the same location, and expects to be up and running sometime in July, this month. He is optimistic,and is looking forward to having a successful business.

Since this is an area of town(Wicker Park) I have friends who live in. I told him I would certainly drop in and check out his selection of footware. This was not a vacant jesture.

Anyways back to the Usher S520s I bought a pair in Piano Black.Had them shipped. Total cost was $300. including ship, and sales tax.

What do I think of the Ushers?
Phisically, georgous looking, and extremely well made loudspeakers, very solid in construction and of high quality,a flawless appearance.They are capable of being bi-amped.They are front ported with a 1 inch tweeter and a 5 inch woofer.

How do they sound?
Well without getting into an extended review let me just say that the high end is articulate,well extended,and quite smooth. The mid-range is rich and open,though I found them to be not quite as defined. I'm not sure quite yet how I feel. It seems to depend on what I listen to. The more complex the music.the more difficult it was for the Ushers to give me the articulation and definition of the music I was listening to. A kind of squeezing of the music is really the only way to describe it. The bass is very nice surprisingly apparent and well defined giving a great illusion of depth.

One thing I would like to add, yesterday, I gave the Ushers about 6 hours of listening and discovered that these speakers like power and volume. The louder I played them the happier they were,They performed better. The squeezing in the mid-range disappeared. The overall sound was very smooth and articulate, and non-fatiguing.

What was lacking?
While overall image was a good size. They lack depth, front to back, and the soundstage was not precise. Individual instruments did not quite have the breath and texture that I like.

Still overall I am quite happy with these louspeakers. and fully intend to keep them and would recommend them.

I also own a pair of 170SEs, and compared the two. Let me just put it as simply as I can The 170SEs are better. :)

Thanks for the review. I considered S520's before stumbling upon CBM-170 SE's. I'm glad to hear that you like the 170's better as I just ordered a pair and they will be here tomorrow--I'm so excited!

I owned the S520 along with the Be-718 (I have pics at my Avsforum posts). Let's just say the 170's beat even the Be718. Far more balanced top to bottom and better bass attack due to efficiency. Sold all the Ushers...

I also owned the Be-718 speakers. They require a lot of power to bloom. I used a 130 WPC amp and they sounded thin. When I fed the Ushers 500W, they sounded terrific. Filled our very large room. Low efficiency speakers are out of my price range to use in home theater though.

Loving my Towers and Horizon now.

500W @ 8? That's quite an expensive gear to mate with $1500 bookshelves which by physical limitations would only be suitable to power medium sized room. For the same budget we can have the Sierra Towers, ribbon hybrid like Newform Research, or some other floorstanders that would sound much2 better in a large room. But anyway Usher's philosophy is completely different from Ascend just by looking at the material choices and freq response. They are voiced to sound pleasant not for the utmost accuracy.

The Be-718 speakers were $2,750 per pair. They needed a lot of power.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/u...inydancer.html

B.

No, in Taiwan and other asian countries the Be-718 are $1500. You can get a friend to ship a pair from here for maybe $150 shipping and save a bunch of $. In US you're getting ripped off. Even at $1500 (prior to having the 170) I thought the price was fair and should not cost a cent more. Right now the diamond tweeter version is at $1700. I sold mine used for $950 a few months ago.

Ok....

B.