Sirspeedy, it seems almost sacreligious to enter into the Stereovox/Audiooracle slugfest over Peak Consult vs Usher but as a prospective purchaser who is interested in both products and who has no biases against Asian, European, American, Russsian or other nationalities' products and as I have listened to the Be20 though not anything in the Peak Consult range I will put in my two cents worth. I suspect, however by now Sirspeedy you are regretting ever posing the question on the Zoltans. For the record I have Japanese amplification(Accuphase), a British subwoofer(REL), British Analogue front end(Wilson Benesch) American phono stage(Pass Labs) and Italian main speakers(Sonus Faber).
The Usher looks very well made and the design of the Dancer range is very reminiscent of Sonus Faber. As an owner of the Guarneri for over 8 years this is of no consequence to me, imitation being the most sincere form of flattery and all that. I am more interested in how they sound.
I was, therefore very happy to have been given the opportunity to test the Usher Be20 by the very knowledgable and helpful Austalian distributor for Usher in my home using my equipment.
I really wanted to be blown away because I really liked the way they looked and I appreciated the technology of the beryllium tweeter and mid(ex NS1000 owner by the way). Sorry Audiooracle but I was not.
To my ears they lacked the ability to faithfully re create complex harmonic structures. As an example, the decay on things like finger snaps on Cassandra Wilson's Glamoured LP was just not there. These sounds did not appear to emanate from a person. Instruments, using a number of different artists on material I know very well were not portrayed with the realism the Guarneris were able to manage and these are the original 1994 version. At no time did I feel like saying "wow, I've never heard that on that track". Now it may have been that my system was not a good match for the Be20's but there was just more musical information and soul from the Guarneris.
The new technology employed by Usher should not of itself be judged as a reason for the product to be considered spectacular unless the performance of the new technology takes us to a higher plane of musical reproduction. In my room with my equipment it did not and I was genuinely disappointed as it is a visually attractive speaker that appears to be very well made.
Now Audiooracle, just in case you think I am against all that you have said I am not. I am interested in listening to Peak Consult products - no dealer within 500 miles unfortunately but I believe that given the technology employed I agree with you that it appears at first glance that they are over priced as are many brands. One of the problems, however with pricing is this. You can't just bring it down to the sum of the parts. What about the intellectual property of the designer? How do you value that? In the end it comes down to what the product delivers within the confines of its competitive set. If it doesn't sound as good to enough people as an equivalently priced Wilson, Avalon or Sonus Faber then they won't sell very many no matter what the reviewers say. As much as some of us may resent it products of all sorts are pitched to perceived needs and high priced products generally are perceived as being of better quality than low priced products. Not always true but there you have the problem for Usher. They will have a difficult time convincing people their products are as good or better than higher priced products, especially those products from established makers. I agree here with Stereovox they appear to me to be very good value for money products but to my ears not competing with the best of the best for sound quality. It will take "miracle marketing 101" to convince this advertisers' world that you can pay less for more.
Also, check out one thing on Audiogon. What prices do various products command on the used market? Avalons, Wilsons and precious few others appear to hold up very well. Peak Consult - maybe not round long enough to have built up a reputation or maybe they are about double what they should be given their competition. Depreciation on Ushers, even at their low initial price is also very steep as is to be expected.
Usher written off? No, I will look again at a new Usher product as I have not rejected the brand just because the Be20 didn't do it for me. Usher seems intent on being a major world force and maybe their next product will be the one for me. Or maybe a Peak Consult - a heavily discounted one!!
