Usher V-601 review

EndersShadow

First of all, I'm NOT a professional reviewer like some of the guys on this forum, nor good with graphs like DarqueKnight, but below is my honest review of the small amount of time I’ve spent with the Ushers I acquired from @ErnieJade.

First the story of how they were acquired. Ernie posted them on Saturday morning. I saw them and was waffling back and forth and back and forth. A call to @DSkip did NOT help any, and he basically blindfolded me and pushed me over the edge.

One reason I was waffling was I was going on a trip to Bloomington Normal, IL the next day for a week-long trip. The purpose of the trip was basically teaching people new to my position how to code from the ground up, and I was responsible for teach many of the concepts as well as being on hand for the workshop day to troubleshoot any issues they had and try to fix anything broken code wise in their office. Needless to say I didn’t really have time to spend thinking about the Ushers… but that didn't stop me .... But on the OTHER hand I was CLOSER to Chicago there than I was from Indy. I also happened to have a Cambridge Audio SR20 stereo receiver sitting in storage, and had packed my tablet already. So I said to HELL with it and grabbed some other stuff so I could set it up in the hotel room.

I happened to have Ernies contact info from a previous sale, and from phone discussions on his bad room and trying to help fix it. I shot him a text and we got to talking about how to handle pickup.

Ernie GRACIOUSLY agreed to meet me after he got off work halfway between where I was and where he was in Bolingbrook. It ended up being a Podunk town called Odell and we met at a gas station right off 55. I appreciate him being so trusting of a guy with my reputation .

We meet there around 6 or 7 on Monday night (the DAY after he posted them) and I snagged them. We shot the $hit for a bit and parted ways. I CANNOT THANK him enough for making the pickup as easy as possible from my end .

With that I returned to Bloomington IL for the rest of my week. Once I got back to the hotel I was all rearing and ready to hook em up and put em through their paces. Then I opened the Cambridge box and realized that they provided cords for both European plugs but NOT any for us in 'Merica..... Thankfully good ol' @pitdogg2 was nearby and came to my rescue the following evening with a cheap IEC cable, so I could you know, turn on the dag gum Cambridge Stereo Receiver. After that I spent some “quality” time (what little I had) on Tues and Wends night when I could. I’m pretty sure the trainees thought I was NUTS when we checked out Thursday and they saw my car loaded down with my gear…..

Since then I’ve intermittently had some demo time with them, both in my main HT (Denon X4100a -> Kimber Hero RCA -> B&K 200.5 -> Kimber 8VS bi-wire) and in my loft setup (Anthem MRX-500 -> Douglas Connection speaker wires + jumpers).

Before I get to my musical impressions I need to add a caveat. I’m tired of chasing a fully neutral speaker. I want an engaging speaker that is nice to both good and bad sources and just pulls you into the music. I don’t have time to demo tons of speakers so the ones I DO get need to be able to be plug and play with my gear and not require a ton of different cables/music formats to sound their best. I know its not “audiophile” to say but I’m NOT chasing fidelity at the cost of engagement. Maybe that’s why I like the LSi over the LSiM’s. Anyway I’m chasing my enjoyment at this point.

With that said, I found the Ushers in my HT room to sound VERY nice but I was turning up the volume QUITE a bit more than my LSi’s to get the same level I’m used to. I ran them in stereo with XT32 off, but both WITH and WITHOUT my DIY sub. I could tell they were too small for my room to really be enjoyed RIGHT. HOWEVER the things they brought to the table were a much more engaging top end. To give specifics on “Up in the Air” by 30 Seconds to Mars, I heard the sizzle of the propane torch in the music video which I had never heard before as well as some other high end details. This was the case for ALL my electronic music (playlist link here). I really enjoyed running through this playlist again with the Ushers.

I put them in my loft to replace the Boston Acoustic VR-M50’s, which were GREAT speakers in their own right. It was a “bit” unfair as the Boston’s only go 60hz and with my ARC measurements on the Anthem I did find that to be the case. As such I was missing a fair amount of lower end stuff, which given my musical tastes was a problem.

In the loft after calibration they dug deeper while continuing to reveal extra details in just about ALL the music I listened to mainly streaming Pandora (Roku -> HDMI > TV -> Optical -> Anthem), or through Media Monkey on my PC (PC -> Black Cat Veloce SPDIF cable -> Anthem). They sounded better at lower levels as well which was expected given the room is a LOT smaller than my HT room.

Just yesterday I had the pleasure of spending about an hour and a half with both my daughters in the rocking chair in that room running through different youtube videos of Lindsey Stirling, Peter Hollens (love his rendition of I See Fire, Misty Mountains and a few other songs, Penatonix, 2Cellos, ThePianoGuys, and lastly the Yoshida Brothers. I also have to shoutout to @trav0810 who I believe introducted me to Simmone Jones and her song Gravity. I found the Remix all on my own (I love both for their own reasons)...... It was either Travis or a Gizmodo article on her, forget which lol. Regardless, my daughter kept asking for more and more “song” in the form of “daddy, I wanna play that song, that’s MY SONG”, while my 9 month old was cooing along with the music. So WIN/WIN/WIN.

EndersShadow

Overall they had a more sparkly presentation compared to what I have had, and provided a better top end. Additionally I found that the mid range was very accurate and not overdone ensuring no one frequency range trumped another, or at least not with the music I liked. They do still need a sub as while the have bass, its not NEARLY as much as I like, but I’m a basshead with music that dips into the low 20hz range frequently, and just about ANY speaker will have trouble doing that loud.

I do have plans to add a sub (just awaiting the purchase of a pro amp and minidsp) to fill out the bottom end, so I was mainly concerned with the upper end, which the Ushers did MUCH better than the Bostons.

That said, the Bostons would make someone VERY HAPPY if they were to use them at work, and with the 60hz dropoff would not have to worry much about bass leakage to their neighbors office. Hence I may “try” to keep them, but I fear they will become casualties to the dreaded “accountant” who must be appeased.

I am “hoping” to put together a small get together later this summer and try to arrange to have some very unique speakers from various local forum members show up, and these Ushers would be there with potentially another set of bookies and some other stuff.

Anyway below are some pictures.

Checking in at my hotel (before I acquired the Ushers)


After getting them setup and starting to run em through some paces.



This is how to keep your speakers happy!


Paired with the LSi’s in the HT setup


Here is a picture of the ARC measurements for the Bostons.



Here is a picture of the ARC measurements for the Ushers (note the differences in both SPL and where the cutoff is located

Nightfall

You... tucked your speakers under the covers in bed?


I like it.

lightman1

And I know where he lives simply by running his license plate number.

Nightfall

Homeowners insurance will pay him back for everything you steal. Sounds like a win/win!

I do not condone fraud, just a joke.

EndersShadow

lightman1 wrote: »

And I know where he lives simply by running his license plate number.

Well wont get you far. Rental paid for and provided by the company. You will just get where I work and I'm just another corporate drone of a large corporation . You'd likely have better luck running down my cell phone number which you should have (unless I wasnt cool enough to save to your phone) lol....

Besides @lightman1 I got me a top notch security system, or at least thats what ADT says.... I'm sure @txcoastal1 would disagree, I mean agre

lightman1

I'll just stand in your yard and peer out from behind a tree, then.

EndersShadow

lightman1 wrote: »

I'll just stand in your yard and peer out from behind a tree, then.

LOL.... good luck. Most of my neighbors are prone to fire first ask questions later.. I live out in the sticks man.... you should know how that goes....

txcoastal1

lightman1 wrote: »

I'll just stand in your yard and peer out from behind a tree, then.

Another big foot sighting??????

ken brydson

lightman1 wrote: »

I'll just stand in your yard and pee out from behind a tree, then.

Fixed it for ya!

hochpt21

Cool review Dan-O!!

You show is gonna need a sub cause I know for sure you all about that bass bout that bass.

lightman1

Hey! Dan bought speakers! And he likes them.

erniejade

Thanks for the kind words and I can hook you up with a minidsp or an electronic crossover if you need!. They really are a solid sounding speaker that plays way above its price.

Btw that gravity remix NEEDS a sub. I ran to turn down the velodyne when things started rattling!

tophatjohnny

Great review.

EndersShadow

erniejade wrote: »

Thanks for the kind words and I can hook you up with a minidsp or an electronic crossover if you need!. They really are a solid sounding speaker that plays way above its price!

I concur and I may take you up on that lol...

erniejade wrote: »

Btw that gravity remix NEEDS a sub. I ran to turn down the velodyne when things started rattling!

Trust me I am aware lol. I normally run it downstairs with my 15" sub on and the gain high lol

Legender

Thanks for the heads up on Peter and Evynne Hollens @EndersShadow ... going for new music now...