The Usher BE-718 only retailed for $1300/pair in Taiwan, it was only boosted to $3000 for the US Market. Secondly they went through a revision a couple years ago, and switched to a metal-carbon alloy tweeter called the Usher BE-718 DMD, once it became a mini-scandal that their beryllium tweeters were actually titanium. Now the new msrp of the DMD was around $1150/pair in Taiwan.
These are really nice furniture pieces, with pretty good on-axis response. However, they are quite directional above 3K due to the 1.25" tweeter with no lens or waveguide, whereas the LS50 would have far superior power response being it’s a coaxial driver. They might be okay-ish in the nearfield or in a narrow sweetspot.
Having personally owned the original 718s, I can tell you they look nice, and certainly fit well with some good living room furniture. But performance wise they aren’t anything special, and don’t really sound better than a lot of $1000/pair speakers. Which shouldn’t be surprising giving their (true) msrp in Taiwan.
These are really nice furniture pieces, with pretty good on-axis response. However, they are quite directional above 3K due to the 1.25" tweeter with no lens or waveguide, whereas the LS50 would have far superior power response being it’s a coaxial driver. They might be okay-ish in the nearfield or in a narrow sweetspot.
Having personally owned the original 718s, I can tell you they look nice, and certainly fit well with some good living room furniture. But performance wise they aren’t anything special, and don’t really sound better than a lot of $1000/pair speakers. Which shouldn’t be surprising giving their (true) msrp in Taiwan.