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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
s7horton
1,077 posts
 
I think if you like the Ushers they would be the right choice. I only heard them breifly at AKfest and did not like them. It could be much different in my own room though. I tend to agree with the idea of putting the most money you can into speakers. In my opinion, they make the most difference in a system. So, get the best you can afford now, and save up to get the rest of the system at a later date.

Regarding amplifiers in the under $750 range, I think the audio refinement complete should be at the top of the list. It's a little order now, but I've hard 6 of them, and have loved every minute with them
hens
173 posts
 
The Ushers are great speakers, IMHO. I have a set in my 2nd system and they really sing on the end of a Musical Fidelity A300 amp (150W/ch). I previously tried them on the end of a 50 watt tube amp (Cayin) and it just didn't work so well, bass became ponderous and muddy. So I think they need a good amount of power to sound at their best.
nasaman's avatar
nasaman
462 posts
 
Very imformative starting thread. I like that when people posting up questions or gathering for inputs.

Indiesound, I'm sorry but I'd go the other way. I would invest a little more to Front End Electronics first before the speakers. To me, it's just like putting a nice set of high performance Z rated tires (150mph) in a Corrola. The Usher 718 took your heart away but THAT WAS AT THE STORE. I'm afraid you will not get that breath taking feeling AT HOME.

Sell your 5.1 avr-230 and get a good used HIGHER power wattage like Denon, Pioneer Elite, Onkyo, Sony, or HarmanKardon. They are 2ch receiver and will fall in your price range. I personally would look into www.AudioAdvisor.com for any entry level integrated amps.
But, in the end, so like me many years ago, you'd would aim straight to upgrading speakers for immedate changing in sounds. Right?

Note 1: In theory, it'll work just fine but I highly NOT recommend to hook-up your NEW AMP to your receiver and use the receiver as a pre-amp.

Note2: with your current front end electronics, I would probably looking for something that can cover the whole sound spectrum; a full FloorStander, perharps.

This is Just For Fun. To buy a good LowFi amps, we look for a Higher Wattage and lower distortion (THD). But for a good HiFi amp, we'd look for a more respected, well known name brand (the most talk about here at A'Gon), and a sky rocking higher price one. Hahaha, it's true.
Good luck and don't forget posting your updates.
larryrx7's avatar
larryrx7
137 posts
 
I had the Tiny Dancers and the one thing they demand to sound good is plenty of current drive. To get that in tubes you will have to spend at least 3k. I tried them with an Onix sp3 and found that the the Ushers just sucked the bottom out of the amp. I got a good price on a set of Monarchy SM 70 Pros and they proved to be the ticket in the under 1k price range. They had plenty of current drive and controlled the bass drivers with an iron fist.
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.
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