Review of the Usher 6371s
Oh Brother, where hast thou been?
So this is what music sounds like. And I’m not coming from chopped liver, either. If you have read “My Musings” you know I preach “SYNERGY”. What I didn’t realize, as well I should have, is that there can also be levels of synergy, because apparently I stumbled across a synergistic match made in audio heaven with speakers that retail for 1/4th the price of my 2 year 6 foot tall multi-driver speaker references (household word in hi-end)- MSRP $12,000, with an amp that is <1/2 the price of my reference Rogues ($4000). Rejoice Brother, rejoice!
Looking at specs, the speakers and BVaudio PA300 solid-state amp should have been an ideal combination. Instead, the music was a dry; rather 2 dimensional (lacking body weight), gobs of detail with excellent depth. About 6 months ago I replaced the amp with the Rogues, which I further refined with croyed Valve Art KT88s, and NOS 12 AU/AX7s. This combination fleshed out the musicians quite nicely, as one would have every right to expect from tube amps of such high pedigree, and an investment of $16,000 between amps and speakers. Alas, our relationship with the speaker manufacturer ended, so they had to go, but not without major trepidation, however, I felt it was time to once again practice a little audio sanity. With the plethora of Korean and Chinese products getting raves, I decided it was time to revisit my $10K System, which I had all but abandoned. How can anyone go from $12,000 speakers to <$3000 speakers ($4200, including powered sub) without a sizeable sense of loss? Such was my plight, and my challenge.
I could take the safe route and get the upgraded Reference 3A MM de Capos “i” version, but having owned the original de Capos for several years, I was looking for a more integrated speaker. Aside from the too large face, which offers a field day for frequency smearing, the De Capos (like 99% of all monitors) are an incomplete design. IMHO, monitor speakers and the stands they rest on, should only be designed (and sold) as a unit, with said unit bolting together! My non-bolted de Capos fell numerous times, several times I managed to catch them, twice they crashed to the floor (hint do not use triple points under them). The fact that they suffered only minor injury was a tribute to their tank-like build quality.
Anyway, the only monitors meeting my design criteria are the Ultimate Monitors, which cost as much as the 6 footers, so they weren’t even a consideration, though they intrigue me to no end, and the KEF Reference 201s (although with KEF the stands are optional). Why KEF demands a huge financial commitment in a hobby where B & MS are struggling to survive is beyond me. So I moved on. BTW, their MSRP is $3000, plus stands. I also evaluated B & W 703s, at a local dealer. There was no way to tell in his set up, and he wouldn’t let me take them home without buying them. I didn’t hear anything in 2 hours of spinning CDs to make me want to do that. As is typically the case, everything happens for a reason, and the door was open, but what’s next? I asked around, and someone, I’ll call him “Deep Throat” for now, suggested the Ushers.
Art + Science =
Looks are very important to me. Audio friends say I’m crazy, but I just don’t get wiggy seeing 6-foot monoliths, even worse are wide face speakers breaking up the flow of my living room- it’s bad Feng Suie. Well even if it’s not, they just don’t feel right to me, and I have owned plenty of them. I must be more in touch with my feminine side, as most significant others feel the same way- monkey coffin styled speakers should be heard but definitely not seen. But how do you hide a 600-pound gorilla?
I think more high-end audio systems would be sold if the speakers didn’t look so much like, well- speakers. Monitors often get the WAF nod. The problem is they tend to dig too deep, pluming depths that send unwanted bass vibes through the cabinet, creating chattering problems for the featherweight tweeter’s dome. Ivo Stepansky (BVaudio) and I have debated sub/sat vs. full-range for some time. After I called to tell him that I dusted off my BVaudio PA300 amp, and to discuss my findings with it and the Ushers, he went to the Usher website and fired back an email that I should be using the Usher CP-7388 or CP-8871s both behemoth full range speakers. So once again we got into the “full-range” vs. sub/sat debate. My argument (based on past experience with full-range Genesis Vs) is that bass does not couple in my room in the same relative plane as the mids/tweeters. What we finally agreed on was that if your room is approximately 12 X 15 (with no openings) a full range speaker “might” work, but in larger rooms, like mine, which is 19 wide and 31 feet deep- with some 15 feet behind my listening chair to the back wall, a sub/sat has proven ability.
Not knowing which Usher 2 way will work best here, I ordered both the 6311s and 6371s, thinking I can probably use what I would expect to be more midrange from the dual woofers in the 6371s, but tempering that with understanding that the fewer the drivers (6311s) the better the potential integration. In his recent AV Guide Monthly review, Chris Marten commented how the 6311 drivers speak with one voice - a review that took me over the edge. Thanks Chris! Stan (the US Distributor) called to ask why I didn’t go with the full-range 6381s. Indeed, I have gotten owner feedback that the 6381s sound great in his 12 X 15 room, but he hasn’t heard what a separate sub and say the 6311s can do, so as far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out.
When I look at the mile deep silver paint job on the 6371s (the color is much richer than in the photos), and the artfully placed, complimentary satin finish birch sides and tweeter cap, the swept back face and parallel backside, soft bull nose corners with cabinet securely bolted onto a heavy, cleverly designed black cast iron base that extends well back from the speaker’s rear, with four adjustable large diameter brass pointed feet, the execution reminds me of classic high performance exotica- they just exude that kind of carefully though out beauty, grace, and power on demand feeling to me. Easily passing for Art Deco- this most happy marriage of form and function, combine for a less obtrusive speaker, and thus more likely to pass the WAF test- sonically, they’re a no brainer. They just sit there, almost taunting me to play them. Brilliant!
I think I touched on all the important bases leading up to my decision to evaluate the new 6 series Ushers, but a pretty face with no soul is worse than “an ugly woman <who> puts the meals time.” Fear not, my opening sentence tells you all you need to know.
I am so blown away I can’t even begin to get my mind around how much better these $2900 MSRP 6371s are than much more expensive multi-driver speakers I have owned! The 6371s have a total of 3 drivers per side, and will probably work fine in most rooms, sans sub, this might also be true of the 6311s, I just haven’t gotten to them, yet. Stay tuned.
Making Magic
The first thing I need, before I can suspend disbelief that I am listening to electronics, is to feel transported to wherever the recording took place- studio, live stadium, hall, library, church… Too often I read reviews where the music never moved beyond the outside of the speakers. Excuse me! When correctly designed, speakers should disappear and music should know no boundaries- other than any venue walls. That was the case with the de Capos, the 924s and now with the 6371s; I am confident, that at the very least, this is an Usher 6 series family trait. The Ushers give great air, how great is going to depend on what you mate them with
Concomitant to suspending disbelief is musical weight (does the instrument encompass the body of said instrument, or merely the initial moment of attack?), timing (rhythm and pace), and seamlessness (disparate drivers speaking with one voice). Comb filtering was a problem that prevented the 6 footers from being irreplaceable. The 6371s simpler design avoids it all together. Getting all these essential puzzle pieces in your room, working in unison, and at the same time is more of a crapshoot than most of us have the patience for. Why? Everything matters- electrical power, power-conditioning, cables, component isolation, vibration control, RFI/EMF, and room treatment; tough to put all that together without spending ten large, but wait the 6 footers were twelve large.
So how do the Usher 6371s stack up? The answer is they are definitely amp dependent. Using the Rogues, the music was big, but a bit slow, and plump, depth was so-so; I thought this was nothing more than signs of a green speaker. In order to expedite break-in by giving them a healthy dose of pink noise (they are very listenable right out of the box), I dusted off my BVaudio PA300 solid-state power amp (170 wpc into 4 ohms, fully balanced), so as not to put non-quality time on my coveted croyed Valve Art KT 88s. SURPRISE!
The following is with the BVaudio PA300:
The very first thing I noticed was that the PA300 took immediate control of this relationship. The sound is way more powerful than with the 150 tube wpc Rogues, more full-bodied, too- of special note triangles, and cymbals have substantive size, weight and bloom beyond the initial note. Live recordings sound “alive”. How can this be? This was very surprising, the opposite of what I expected. However this is good news as the Rogues were adding some $50 per month to my already outrageous summertime S Florida electric bill. Cold fusion, anyone?
Listening to Patty Larkin’s “A go-go”, she and her guitar are here, or I’m there. Take your pick; the point is we (the guitar, Patty, and I) are in the same joyful, musically explosive place. I can feel her energy. The presentation on “A go-go”, is very front row, with all the air of it’s being a live performance, and I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her live in two very intimate settings. I’m stunned.
BTW, the BVaudio PA300 is a mere $1690 MSRP! Chris Marten was right, these Ushers also prefer ss. When I mentioned my experience to Stan, the US Distributor, he said, “Dr D’ voiced the 6 series with ss amps. Right now I am spinning “Hell Freezes Over”- Hotel California. Even from downstairs I can hear the puff of the Spanish notes coming off Joe Walsh’s acoustic guitar intro. I never heard that with my previous combo!
I set the Ushers where most speakers sound best in this room, some 7 feet off the front wall, with the face angle at about 22 degrees. Now 3 days later, I am listening to Mapleshade’s “Datevik”. The sound is slightly out of focus. I decided to open the face angle to about 26 degrees- snap! This not only clarified the focus, but improved depth, too! Be prepared to experiment, and once you are close, know a few degrees (or millimeters) can be significant.
Time for some classical. The soundstage begins at floor level, going up. It is wide, deep and expansive (this is also source dependent). Kettledrums have great impact and bloom (again I am mystified by this); wood instruments have appropriate richness of tone. I recently read where a reviewer had an epiphany that it is perfectly acceptable that the sound stage, as heard through a $15,000 speaker, was some 4 feet above the floor, AND equally acceptable that the “sweet listening spot” was so tight that he used the phrase “head in a vise” to describe it. Now how exactly are we to get more people interested in high-end audio when speakers are designed for one listener at a time? Indeed, how can such speakers be praised, let alone considered groundbreaking?
So far I have listened to male, female, folk, rock, classical, and jazz. I could go on with ever more CD comparisons, but the bottom line is the 6 Series Ushers are sending a message to the competition. No question if made in the US they would easily cost $6-8,000. They also pass quite nicely as exotic-art, and therefore should get past the most demanding WAF, where other monkey coffins would not. Plus the price is less than either the de Capos “i” with stands, or KEF 201 monitors, without.
In the 3 days since receiving the 6371s, I have listened to more music then I have in weeks prior- always a good sign. 24 hours later, the sound is still a little on the dark side, could be any number of things. I decided to change the OEM stamped jumpers to decent wire- BIG improvement in air and speed. The darkness other reviewers mentioned evaporated! What I haven’t done yet is add lead shot to the speaker cavity- and I need to do this, as I am still hearing a bit of nasal influence. I have a Korean Stello 220 dac on order, which should take everything up- “another notch”!
Cracking the DNA code
First, come to terms with this fact- everything matters. Synergy is 2 parts knowledge and 3 parts luck. I simply was not expecting the soul mate connection between the BVaudio PA300 and the Usher 6371s. This is not to say other amps will not perform equally as well, or better. How much time do you really want to spend researching <$2000 amps? And chances are you will have to spend twice as much for maybe a smidgen more.
I believe what music lovers are striving for through this hobby is different than it is for the “audiophile”. Music lovers have no real interest in playing with amps, cables, separate components…They want to write a check knowing they have made a one-time investment, and spend the rest of their time listening to music. How I envy them! Alas, unlike say buying an automobile, you have to expect some loudspeaker experimentation. We will do our best to minimize this for you.
If your room is less than 12 X 15, start with the 6311s (and maybe a powered sub), but definitely consider either the 6371s, or possibly the full-range 6381s. If you go with the 6381s (and unless you have a sizeable room), my guess is you better glue everything down in the house.
Due to the recent availability of products like the Usher 6 series, April Music Stello digital products, BVaudio amplification, the $10K System is reborn. Look for a package deal soon. Putting things in proper perspective, it is unlikely you can cut and paste, and wind up this happy. Don’t forget, putting in the right amp took me from being merely impressed to blown away. Ten large for a total system that sounds like this is worth selling off what you have, and if need be, taking a loan out for the rest.
Try to make the Denver show in October. Usher will be displaying in several rooms. Hopefully you will get to see and hear the above-mentioned products in concert. I hope to see you there, but don’t wait. These speakers are a revelation, if not a revolution. I certainly have newfound enthusiasm. The Usher 6 Series is where art and science meet, and live happily ever after- with the right amp.
Robert Hart
Audio Tweakers
www.audiotweakers.com
