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Help a Newbie. Considering Usher Be 718's

I'm a newbie who finds it hard to justify spending a ton of money on hifi audio, so i'm trying to follow the adage, put most of your money into your speakers.

I started from near zilch (a Harman Kardon AVR 230 from 2004) and now have:

Panasonic 46PZ85 Viera
Harman Kardon AVR 230
Speaker cables, audio interconnects of decent quality (spent $70 for speaker cables and $35 for the interconnects)

and one pair of Ascend Sierra 1's ($760, got free shipping) just received last Tuesday (still within the 30 day trial period. I went to a local audio dealer who has offered me 30% off a pair of Usher Be 718 tiny dancers, so about 2K + state tax). These were my favorites that i auditioned.

There is a caveat. They are dealer demos and thus he can only really "reserve" them for me for about 10 days.

If i buy the Ushers, the MOST amount of money i will spend is about $400-$750 for an amp to hook up to my HK AVR 230 (about 60 watts per channel).

A few things about me:

1. Looking for 2 channel only, cannot afford to buy 5 speakers
2. Love audio quality
3. Live in an apartment, cannot play speakers too loud, nor use a subwoofer.
4. Own exactly 1 DVD, about 100 CD's, mostly alternative rock, some jazz, acoustic rock.
5. will likely purchase a DVD player (looking into a Denon 2910 about $200 used), a blu ray player (probably the Panny BD35 or possibly the upcoming Oppo), may look into buying a CD player (possibly Cambridge Audio around $200 used), all used (except blu ray) and will not spend more than $500 on any of the three.
6. Need to decide before the 30 day trial period ends (about 2-3 weeks from now) and would like to make a purchas eby then, if i don't keep the Sierras.

I've always heard the adage, put most of your money into your speakers, so that's what i'm trying to do, put all my money into my speakers while being very budget consious elsewhere.

Is it worth it to buy the Ushers considering the equipment i will have? To me the Sierras are great, but the Ushers are like WOW! However, they were playing on $15,000 worth of equipment.

In other words, will the Ushers be a justifiable upgrade/ sound like a great improvement over the Sierras given my low end equipment?

Also can someone reccomend a good amp for $400-$750 used here on Audiogon?

Finally, do my choices sound good? what would you do differently if you were me?

Am also considering Salk Songtowers (about same price as the Ushers), maybe Totem, but few are on sale on Audiogon.
indiesound
indiesound OP
24 posts
 
Nasaman or anyone else, can you expand upon why i shouldn't use my HK AVR 230 as a pre-amp?

Will the results be poor? How about the NAD C272 amp? It delivers 150w for 2 channels.

I read somewhere that the Tiny dancers will do better on solid state over tubes.

I realize that the Ushers need a lot of power. I can purchase a $500 amp (used or on clearance)

But will the sound be poor with my setup, or in other words, not much of an improvement over my Sierras?

I guess i could sell my HK reciever and spend up to about $500 used on a pre/pro or receiver.

But i'm not really willing to spend 2K or 3K on my electronics, as that would be more than the cost of the speakers itself.

Is the improvement really remarkable by spending a lot of money on high end seperates and by using tubes?

Any budget tube recommendations with enough power for the Ushers for under $750?

Thanks again.
Post removed 
james63
501 posts
 
Yea buy them... You can get a good used Musical Fidelity integrated amp here on audiogon with $750(a major step up from the Harmon and Kardon).
bezimienny
53 posts
 
Hi. Just in case you decide to spend a bit more on an amplifier, I could recommend the class D Wyred4Sound models. These are based on Bang & Olufsen ICEpower modules (Bel Canto amps use the same modules, but are much more expensive).

I've written an Audiogon review of the Usher Be718s when partnered to a Jadis low-powered integrated tube amp - not ideal. Since then I've purchased the speakers and teamed them to the Wyred4Sound ST1000 + an old ARC pre-amp (SP9MkIII). This combination sounds great. There are reviews of the Wyred4Sound products on the net, and they're uniformly positive. If you buy one, you may never need to "upgrade" - I'm not intending to.

The Ushers really do have an incredibly detailed and sweet top end. Obviously you've read the professional reviews, and it's hard to disagree with the praise.

I've experimented with stand height - at least in my room they need to be between 22" and 24" above the floor - lower than that and the bass became muddy. As with all speakers, they do need decent heavy stands - but if money's tight, then cinder blocks with blu-tak are effective (that's how I altered heights) - not pretty though.

If the above is too expensive, then I'd second the recommendation for a used Musical Fidelity amp.

Good luck with the project.

Rob
kcgumbohead
28 posts
 
I started with an NAD based system and enjoyed it thoroughly. I think you are on the right track and driving the Ushers with an NAD through your HK will be fine and a big improvment from where you are now. Take time to enjoy that system and should you find aspects of the sound that you want to improve upon you can look at pre's at some point down the road. Take this in stages, enjoy each one and most importantly enjoy the music.Research a short list of amps you are considering and get the best quality you can afford. A search of any NAD model should yield plenty of results. Good luck.
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