Speakers that sound like Usher Be-20s/10s

Hi everyone,

I own a pair of BE-10 and i can't find anything that can compare to it! Truing to find one for less is impossible.
Revel is overpriced for a non-interesting result. Comparing a BE-10 to the SALON is not fair for the revel...
The BE-10 is very transparent and the result can be really different considering the matching electronics and cables. I heard the BE-10 with PLINIUS mono blocks during the Munich high-end salon and it was pretty bad. The sound was too forward and flat due to the non musical PLINIUS system.
I use my BE-10 with MUSIC CULTURE electronics and it's quite amazing. My wires are ACROLINK, ANALYSIS PLUS (i'll upgrade to TARALABS OMEGA soon). The evidence is so clear to ears that you just go deeper into music.
I know the whole USHER range. BE-10 can only be compete by itself. If there is not many BE-10 on the second hand market, it should be the sign that nobody want to change it.
I compared the CP-8571 to the SASHA 3 and even at this price range, the USHER was superior in every way.
I think you've better stay in USHER AUDIO brand and try to find something at you're price range. The CP-6311 is an amazing low priced speaker cause it's very musical. Not the most detailed or sharp but music is very emotional with it.

@P59teitel : i do know the differences between those amps but it didn't explain why it was so flat? Do you imply that the PLINIUS should drive speakers with too much depth to be good??? :))

@Denon1: I'm quite surprise on your impression on the CP-8571II? Dc d'apollito is behind every USHER AUDIO speakers and his work on phasis is flawless.
I don't know your electronics but if you had this impression on CP-8571, the Martens are probably messy enough to melt all frequencies together...

@P59teitel : i do know the differences between those amps but it didn't explain why it was so flat? Do you imply that the PLINIUS should drive speakers with too much depth to be good??? :))

@Denon1: I'm quite surprise on your impression on the CP-8571II? Dc d'apollito is behind every USHER AUDIO speakers and his work on phasis is flawless.
I don't know your electronics but if you had this impression on CP-8571, the Martens are probably messy enough to melt all frequencies together...

ROTEL is probably not the best Hifi brand on the market but it depends if you're talking about power amps, preamps, CD player... and it will also depend of the model, like in every brand on the market. Sometimes it's great on some models. Sometimes it's bad...
The ROTEL power amps are not so bad for the asking price. If you use a hybrid system with tube preamp and ROTEL power amp, you can be surprise.

About the USHER DMD tweeter, i'm still surprise when someone always write about the Beryllium percentage inside it ?! For the record, the DMD is no longer a Beryllium tweeter... Nevertheless, how can you measure the quality of a driver on the percentage of Beryllium inside it ?
USHER is probably the best brand on the market today for many reasons :
1 - They produce and develop their own drivers (DMD tweeter, Beryllium medium)
2 - They use the skills of dc d'apollito, M. Ritchie and 40 years of experience.
3 - The asking price is way below the competition for a better result.

I'm a professional for 20 years and i was always amazed how people can buy only on reputation or ego. When it comes to real sound, it's not an easy task to find something really emotional!
Many brands offer artificial highs (headache after 1 hour of listening), emphasis medium (majority), boomy low frequencies or no bass at all. USHER was a real slap when i discover the brand during an Hifi show. From the S-520 to the D-3, it's always perfectly in phase and a real deal for the price. And it makes music, not only frequencies.
MARTEN for example use a ceramic driver. It's too stiff to let music flow but great on transients. It depends what you like to ear : the sniffing man on the back of the sound stage or the emotion of the music.
And "knowing audio" doesn't mean a thing. Knowing technic and drivers are better informations to evaluate a speaker.

Dynamic with no-control is probably the worst an amplifier can make!

Power is one thing, control of power is a complete different story. Many amplifier shows dynamic in one single wave (flat), some other throw the music in the face (forward). Rare are amplifiers with articulate dynamics that show how every instrument has his own life. I really think is the heart of a great Hifi system.

In my life, the only cheap brand that showed an incredible value for the price was MAGNUM (not Magnum dynalab), a small english brand now closed.

A rapid list of great amplifiers in order of price for me :
- NVA (English) : not the greatest neutrality but so vivid and enjoyable to listen to!
- TSAKIRIDIS Devices (Greece) : Tube amps phenomenal for the price!
- EXPOSURE : Not all the models are equally good.
- ODYSSEY : depending on models
- NAIM (english) : This brand is a closed sister of NVA...
- SYMPHONIC LINE (German) : expensive but very good
- MUSIC CULTURE (German): Extremely musical, fluid but even dynamic

@P59teitel : I think PLINIUS Amps can find his way on "hard to drive" speakers like old BW 800 serie or some MAGICO and WILSON AUDIO. On BE-10 (easiest to drive), it was too much for a bad result. Anyway it was not really emotional kind of amps, just a powerful SS with no subtilities.

SYMPHONIC LINE is really great amps, from the starter to the high-end serie. It seems like you know Naturalness in Hifi...Cheers!