Totem The One vs. Usher "Tiny Dancer" Be 718

Zenblaster: Did you hear Totem's The One or was it the Rainmaker? If it was the Rainmaker at a fraction of the price, that's pretty impressive.

Dkzzzz: Have you heard the Be 718? How about The One? What's your reference system? Thanks.

I'm trying to recall what I heard in Vince's room. There were several speakers from Totem and I listened to a few from the Rainmaker to, I believe was "The One" plus he had some floorstanders. I think they were powered by a pretty basic Naim Int amp, certainly nothing exotic or even expensive. A friend has a pair of "The One"powered with a Cj tube amp that sounds Other Worldly. You have to listen to Totem speakers, they don't let you leave the room, They definetley have their own flavor, sweet as it may be, not analytical. They make music sound good.
Dkzzz, you are correct- the tweeter of the Tiny Dancer seemed to be nuclear bright and ringing to me. I suppose that could be toned down with proper amplification and room treatments. The mids were very sweet though, but I somehow felt like I was listening to digital music with them, not a lot of warmth.
These 2 speakers could not possibly be more different.

You guys are hysterical! I was at CES and the two setups were night and day. Usher is represented by the Tracht brothers who are not really uber audiophiles, while Vincee Bruzne and Totem are set up masters.

The Be 718 were in a gigantic, untreated, room and being driven by Usher amps, preamps and cd players which are all inexpensive components,which may or may not be great I have never evaluated them, I think the CD player is around $1,000.00.

The ones were very impressive, however, they were in a small room, setup with great equipment and cost 30% more.

You can't really judge anything at CES. The only purpose of CES is to get a quick evaluation and perhaps take the product to the next level by listening in your own setups.

The Tiny Dancer has won numerous awards and offer great performance for the money. The only way to know which one is better is to hear both speakers side by side.

I am an Usher dealer and I have looked at Totem many times. Totem makes an excellent speaker which has its strengths and weaknesses just like any other product, but as I mentioned, it is all in the setup.

Interesting. So is Audiooracle's feedback. Also, knowing what's at stake, why would Usher effectively sabotage itself?

Sorry, don't mean to sidetrack with your original post. But you brought up about audio shows and such....

It's not so much of Usher sabotaging themselves. They are basically at the mercy of their U.S. distributors. It is a typical story with small Asian companies (in any business) not having expertise in business dealings in forign countries, especially dealing with the west. Unlike some larger corporations, USHER can't afford to spend millions hiring business consultants to help them establish a multi-national corporation and hire the right type of people in each country to represent their company/product. So they rely on importers and distributors. As far as I know, most of the distributors and importers are more focus on selling stuff and making money than being audiophiles.

I was impressed by Usher when I first heard them in the San Francisco show several years ago. They had a great setup in a great room. I had followed them afterwards at several other shows both here in the U.S. and abroad and felt that none of their subsequent shows to date sounded as good as the San Francisco setup. I've also talked to their sales manager in length at several occassions at various shows and also when I was in Taiwan for vacation.

I've been hearing great praises about their BE-10 and -20, and spent some time listening to them at several recent shows. I didn't think they were that great. They were good, but not great. Recently I heard a properly set up BE-20 at a local dealer show room with top notch VTL setup (presented by VTL folks). I was drooling afterwards. NuForce was in the same presentation, and replaced the VTL tube monoblocks with their digital amps during the second half of the presentation. I stole the sweet spot during the break, but after 10 minutes listening to the NuForce/USHER combo, I ran out the door with my ears bleeding.

FrankC