Sonus Faber Dominus Grand Piano vs Usher 6831/6731

FWIW I used to own the original SF Grand Piano's, and I now own the JMlabs Micro-Utopias. The Sf's were nice speakers, and very WAF friendly, my girlfriend still misses them, but the JMlabs are in another league. Much more transparent, but still fairly warm and organic sounding. Hope that helps.

I demo'd the Sonus Faber Domus Piano's and the next size down. My friend and I really did not like that next size down at all. Congested sounding. The bigger Piano's was teh bee's knee's. But I could not swing $5k. I ended up buying the Usher 6371 speakers. Wow. Talk about getting your moneys worth. These are one hell alot of speaker for the money! They are bigger sounding and more detailed than the Sonus Fabers. So far with my 15 hours owning them they are not as warm. But still very smooth. I havn't spiked or filled them with lead yet. I read thats a must do.
You can check out my thread on AudioAsylum on them.
For half the price of the Sonus Fabers Im really happy.

Yes I have heard the Grand Piano's. They sounded very good, which surprised me because I did not like the electronics driving them. I have not heard the 816s, but did hear the larger/newer 1027's.

I like the Sonus Fabers and the JM Labs (which again surprised me, since I have sorta had a chip on my shoulder in regard to JM Labs. The chip has been replaced with respect) I think both of them are good speakers for the money especially for the price they can be had on AudiogoN. Neither are cheap, but they aren't expensive either. The Ushers, in comparison to the Sonus Faber and the JM Labs that I have heard sounded like a cheap speaker. Everyone has their opinion though.

I had the usher cp-6381 setup in one of the show rooms 2 weeks ago at the montreal audio show.
the models on display in my other room where the cp-(dancer)777mk2 and the x-719,the 8571mk2 was on static display as it was impossible to make it sound good in this rather smallish hotel room.
there was another exhibitor who had the same usher cp-6381 in his setup one floor below me, everyone who came into my room tought""" WOW''' they could not believe that they where hearing the same speakers playing as the ones they had heard one floor below.
When you are in this business its easy to make fast judgement on how a system sound, if the components upstream from your speakers do nothing for the sound obviously you did not do your homework and prepared yourself well.
asociated with quality components that have good synergy
upstream pretty much every USHER speaker will blow away
anything in their price point.
i was driving the little X-719 with 200 watt tube monoblocks and peoples jaws dropped as they entered the room, they could not believe the price of the speakers, the sounstgae they threw..wide and deep in not so good listening environment, same when i drove them the other half day's with the 160 watts nuforce reference 9's.
all in all its not because its USHER that are been driven that the system sounds good, its the total synergy of the system, but wichever way, hear the ushers, look at the finish and theres not much that comes close at that price point...and i mean that troughout the range, from the s-520
priced at 400$ to the AC-20 at 12,000$.

True true. In this months Absolute Audio they talk about these issues during the last show they covered. Take their opinion with a grain of salt because of lousey show conditions. I bought the Usher 6371 speakers and they are simply awsome. Now I want to upgrade my Rotel 5x100 amp to something nicer.