The Rise of the House of Usher

"Have you heard the little Ushers?" I was asked Friday. "Have you heard the little Ushers?" I was asked repeatedly on Saturday. No!, but not because I hadn't tried. I just couldn't get near the room. It was that packed. Finally, on Sunday I not only got in, I got the sweet spot. Hmmm, I see, umm, hear, what people were buzzing about. The little Ushers, I mean the system, sounded good, with a fabulous sense of body and an extremely tuneful midrange. Maybe they lacked a little bass impact, but they sounded robust for a 6" two-way it ain't just the speakers, of course, but the Oracle Audio Technologies gear and JPS Labs cables as well."

http://blog.stereophile.com/he2007/051407usher/ --Wes Phillips, Stereophile.com HE 2007 Show Report

Usher BE718 reveiw by 6Moon

"Driven along by an all-Oracle rig featuring among other earthly delights their impressive CD 1500 player and buttressed by the extraordinary musicality of those new top-of-the-line JPS Labs Aluminata speaker cables, interconnects and AC cords (which Art Dudley raved about in a recent Stereophile), these speakers demonstrated the kind of tonal balance, linearity, image stability, soundstaging depth, frequency extension and overall coherence I covet in a minimonitor. If this represents the more or less entry-level quality of the loudspeakers Usher is looking to introduce to the American marketplace, they are off to a flying start. http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/ny07_2/ny07.html

--Chip Stern, 6moons.com, page to bottom

"Now THIS was one sweet sounding system! What we have here is Usher's new Be-718 'Tiny Dancer'. No Elton John playing when I entered, but the sound produced by the new Ushers and a complete system by Oracle had me walking a Yellow Brick Road. Both the Ushers and the Oracles are feasts for the eyes as well as the ears. This is one of the rare rooms where you just want to chill out and forget you are doing a job and luxuriate in the music. I think I actually sighed 'Ahhh yes!'.

The Be in the name indicates that the tweeters are crafted from Beryllium - the industry's latest buzzword. You know, it doesn't really matter what the material of a speaker is if it is not designed and executed well. I've heard "Be" speakers that made me want to "Be" somewhere else, but not the Tiny Dancers. So what's the price? Around $2,500 per pair. 'Be' yuteeful!"

http://www.stereomojo.com/Homeentertainment2007.htm --Jame Darby, stereomojo.com

Positive Feedback Online

"Another very good sounding setup was the Usher Audio Dancer Be-718 monitors with Oracle electronics and JPS Labs cables. The sound was dynamic, clean and coherent. The Usher monitors produced quite acceptable bass-better than might be expected for a speaker of this size."

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue31/he2007a.htm

--Patrick Conroy, Positive Feedback Online

The Be-718s In Greater Detail

Usher Audio speakers and electronics are built for the experienced listener who won't compromise on sound quality even at moderate prices. The spectacular stand-mounted Be-718s--the Tiny Dancers with a Huge Presence--features Ushers' own 1.5-inch Be beryllium dome tweeters and carbon-impregnated paper-cone midbass drivers.

The Be-718s effortlessly fill even medium-large rooms with musical dynamics; the integration, speed and clarity of its drivers are exceptional. Expansive, quick upper frequencies are redolent with harmonics for female vocals or the quick shimmer of brass. A fast, open and seductive midrange caps deep, taut, powerful bass.

The beautifully engineered Be tweeters on the Be-718s uncover low-level details usually lost in the noise floor of less resolving speakers. The esteemed Dr. Joseph D'Appolito serves as Usher's technical consultant, providing guidance in crossover design. The result is suave, elegantly powerful, transparent sound from beautifully-crafted and lustrously-finished cabinets at very affordable real-world prices.

The Be-718s, like all Usher speakers, are produced with skill and pride in an ultra-modern factory in Taiwan with great attention to manufacturing efficiency and productivity, turning out beautifully-crafted speaker systems incorporating advanced technologies like the Be beryllium midrange drivers found in the floorstanding Dancer Be-10 and Be-20 along with our superbly-engineered beryllium tweeters.

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