Usher Compass Baby Dancer 8571-II loudspeakers

The Usher is among the most holographic speakers you could hope to hear, producing images that float free from its surfaces. On a first-rate disc like the Richter/Munch/Boston reading of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 JVC XRCD], it precisely delineates the onstage positions of the orchestra sections as well as interactions between the orchestra and the venue's acoustics. On smaller-scale recordings, the Dancer also presents spatial and textural cues that suggest the sizes and shapes of instruments. scale. What's more, the powerful dynamics carry right on down into the bass region, which extends to the upper-20Hz range. As a visiting colleague put it, It's hard to believe the bass Usher gets from a single 8" woofer. If you told me it was using dual 10" woofers, I'd believe you. Granted, when you push the Dancer very hard, you might hear faint strain-a subtle shouting quality-from the 7" mid/woofer. But on the whole, the Usher's dynamic qualities are exemplary. On The build quality. Built like a bank vault, the CP-8571 II is a large floorstander with a curved-wall enclosure and gorgeous satin walnut finish. According to Tsai, the enclosure is built on a cast-iron base for maximum stability and has heavily braced 1"-thick cabinet walls with a layer of high-mass damping material applied to most internal surfaces. The front baffle is made from a rigid MDF laminate several inches thick, and the enclosure has three chambers: at the bottom, a mass-loading chamber with front-facing access hatch; in the middle, a large, partially lead-lined ported woofer chamber; and at the top, a separately ported tweeter-mid/woofer enclosure. The Dancer is bolted to a plinth. Large brass floor spikes couple the speaker to the floor.