Ideas on the Usher AC-20?

I recently purchased a pair here in Australia and while I would tend to agree with the "lean and neutral" comments above, they are some of the best speakers I have heard. I have tried them with eveything from Vintage EL34 Valves through to 100 wpc Class A and Mark Levinson ML333. The true ability of the Usher AC_20 seems to be it's ability to reveal what's upstream in the Audio chain. As a tool for evaluating components, they have few equals, in my opinion. Yes, they will be time consuming to set up correctly and definitely do not play well in inferior company. But, when you get it right, the rewards far outweigh the effort. I believe the BE Series is a step up again, but the AC-20 is proving to one of my best audio purchases in 20 years, not to mention an absolute bargain even at retail prices. Just my 2 cents worth ... but there's so little online about these, makes me wonder if I have the only pair in the Southern Hemisphere !

Thank you very much people!! My gut tells me to stay away from these speakers since, what you just said Ff116, "Bad recordings are almost unlistenable" is a BIG nono for me. I hate bright sounding speakers, but I might give them a chance. Anyways...I will start to write down my criterias for a speaker I´m looking for and create an new thread with some possiable canditates ;)

Damn it´s hard to chose speakers nowdays.

Thanks for the input

I recently picked up some Usher cp-6371's and they sound ridiculously good. So, I can't comment on the sound of these, I can say the model I have is very good. They play all music very well, especially rock, alt etc.

I have the AC-10's, but haven't heard the AC-20's. These are very good speakers indeed. The AC series requires very careful set up, and many hours of break-in time. I would describe the speaker as neutral to lean sounding. Bad recordings are almost unlistenable, and they don't mate very well with solid state gear. I found tubes were the best match. You were given good advice earlier, without the benefit of listening personally, stay with the well known stuff.

have you read this review of the ac-10? it might give some idea on the ac-20.
http://www.usheraudio.com/news/Stereo%20Times__%20ac-10.htm

Even if the AC-20's were not so far from you, they are older speakers and they will not be available for audition with your amplifier through dealers. When you buy used here at Audiogon, you normally won't get to audition the gear in your room with your equipment. In the case of the AC-20's the best you could hope for is the ability to listen to the speakers in the seller's home or the home of someone you know that owns them. You take a risk buying used, so buy well known items with a good following, at a good price, so you can resell them here at little loss if you don't ultimately like them. That's my advice. Audofeil is bit off base here with his take that you should audition these speakers with your amplifier. In the ideal world that is absolutely true. In this case, that's unrealistic unless there are a special set of circumstances. The exception would be if the speakers in question were a new or recent model still available for audition through dealers. Then you could have the speakers in your room or take your amp to the dealer if they were local. In the case of older models, an audition is generally not going to happen unless you have a friend with those speakers and they're willing to let you set them up in your listening room on your gear to help you make a decision. A scenario like that is unlikely. And sellers here are not going to give you a speaker audition on your amp.

Ok, well thanks for those words..I intend to listen to them, but he who sells them live far from me, so if someone know something about their soundcharacter I would appreciate it. Thx

Correction:
The "For Sale" ads not "Wanted" ads.

Sorry.

Never buy any component, especially speakers, simply because the price is "good". The wanted ads on Audiogon are replete with examples of that mistake.

The best price in the world is irrelevant if you don't like the sound. Speakers are very personal and subjective. Give these speakers a serious evaluation with YOUR amplifier otherwise the audition isn't worth much.

I'd venture a guess that your English is better than anybody's Swedish who is participating here.