I have a pair of Usher BE-718 bookshelf speakers ... and of course, I think this particular speaker would potentially do what you're wanting them to do.
The two things that've both surprised me and pleased me the most, and it's really kind of a toss up, which one's more valuable to me the bass extension and how it gets the high frequencies so right.
I challenge you to come up with another bookshelf that'll do both so well, for the money. Period.
The caveat is that they're power hungry ... what a good problem to have, right?
I read a lot of reviews before I bought them ... and a couple of the reviews said that, so it wasn't a surprise to me. What the review said is, when you feed them well they sing like nobody's business. I concur.
The thing I also read, which is real cool is how low they go w/o being the least bit boomy. It's a trip ... for a bookshelf. I have an interesting observation for the reason, potentially. I set them up in my main room right next to my Martin Logan Summits and I noticed that the cabinet is damn near the same shape as the, I guess you call it the bass module, of my Summits. And that serves pretty much as a subwoofer, that's tied in to the electrostatic panel. All I can say is you've gotta hear it to believe it.
The other thing about the speaker is the Beryllium tweeter. All I have to say there is that it's very special. I'm not sure I could even do it justice, like a lot of folks on this site but I know that not very many speakers have Be in their tweeter, and the ones that do are pretty remarkable. Focal comes to mind.
So the other thing the reviews gave it high marks for consistently is imaging and soundstage. I think getting both ends right has a lot to do with that in this particular speaker.
Another interesting fact ... I guess Usher makes some of their own speakers (?) and apparently they use their nicest 7" for this particular model.
Oh btw, one of the reviews actually called it "one of the best speakers you can buy, for the money". Something real close to that. I was like, Hmmm ... but I agree after owning them for a while now.
