is the Usher S520
Auditioned it at ARN Systems and bought it immediately. While I concede that various biases and extraneous conditions could have played a role in the decision, and my experience with audio equipment is very limited, and so my opinion is of limited value, it sounded like it was from a different category, from pretty much everything I've heard so far on this quest.
I started the audition with Supertramp's School, where the speakers sounded good, but not great, and I was thinking "oh, is this going to be a letdown". Then more tracks followed including "money for nothing" and "ride across the river" by dire straits, stuff from my sheffield lab and stereophile test discs, and so on, and as the speakers warmed up it markedly got better and by the time it played Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat....even Sridhar was taken aback by what these speakers were doing. Dynamic range! my god....i haven't seen this kind of dynamic range from a speaker of this size and price. The mids were liquid, highs were detailed but smooth (the amp being an NAD probably had a smoothing effect).
The coherence between the mids and the highs was superb. The sound had a wholeness to it. The bass was tight and while the cabinet and driver size limitations meant that it did not have the grunt of the BR2, the low frequences went really low (for its size) and the reproduction was accurate, authoritative and fast. The bass was exactly the opposite of the bass of the Wharfedale 10.1, which is deep but loose, this was less deep, but far more authoritative, tight and accurate. I expect the bass to shine even more in my room.
It dispatched every genre thrown at it with aplomb. Like Sachin Tendulkar on song. Jazz, classical, rock, blues, spoken word, it sounded great with everything.
Hmmmm yeah, so I loved it to bits. And I am fairly confident about the fact that none of the other speakers I've heard as part of this series of auditions can compete with the Ushers. It pretty much demolishes my previous favourite, the BR2. It is not "under" 20k, but even at around 22k it's superb value IMHO. The only reason someone would pick the BR2 was if they had a larger room and needed the extra grunt.
While I myself would not advise you to rely on my opinion for anything, I would definitely urge you to listen to these speakers if you're looking for bookshelves even up to 30-35k, because these sounds like they're worth that much.
Oh ya, afterwards I listened to the BE-718 and the Emerald Physics CS2.3. thevortex, i am sorry i couldn't audition the other Usher, because I was already intruding into someone else's audition appointment. The Be-718 sounded like a BIG brother of the S520. Of course, it costs some 5 times more, and it sounded at least twice as good
the LFE was stunning, and the mids were super liquid, as were the highs.
And of course the Emerald Physics. I've heard people describe speakers by saying that "it felt like the performers were there in the room with you." I've never actually felt that before. I felt it with these. Goosebump level performance. They sounded like no speaker I've heard before. Cranked up to really really loud levels, it sounded shockingly listenable. The bass had a different quality to it compared to the box speakers I've heard. I am not 100% sure I like it this way, but ya, it's a quibble. Stunning speakers! maybe some day when I have the dough to start a thread saying "favourite speakers around Rs. 2 lakhs" I'll be seriously considering these
