Audiophilepure

The Usher Audio UA-50 Anniversary loudspeakers are very impressive, delivering detailed, and wide-staged imagery, cohesive top-down from their diamond tweeters through a rich and lush midrange, into the mid-bass, and a little below.  On their own, they render a variety of material from classical to jazz, blues, and rock. Combined with quality sources and electronics, they’re quite compelling. And if you need extra lower end, you can always deploy a quality subwoofer (or, better yet, a pair of subs) to your heart’s content. However, for the vast majority of time spent listening to them, the thought rarely crossed my mind. They really drew me into the music. 

Summed up, if you’re into an immersive audio experience, high-performance three-way monitors with a slick retro 80s vibe, a lush and detailed midrange, and modern accouterments like an updated curved chassis and modern diamond tweeters, the Usher Audio UA-50s just may be your end game. But, don’t wait long; there are only a few left!

The most significant – and presumably most expensive – upgrade for this generation is to be found in the tweeter. Diamond or carbon domes, as used higher up B&W’s range, are not tenable in this price category, so instead the manufacturer has developed a new titanium dome tweeter. A two-part design, this features a 25µm-thick main dome framed by a marginally chunkier (30µm) titanium ring, and fires through a new mesh grille derived from the 800 D4 series’ tweeter assembly. For this generation, the positioning of the tweeter is also closer to the midrange below (their trim rings ‘overlap’) to improve driver integration.

The titanium dome is mounted into an elongated tube that’s hidden inside the cabinet. The principle behind this design is nothing new for B&W – albeit more apparent with its ‘Tweeter-on-Top’ models – and is intended to progressively attenuate the rear output of the tweeter, minimising rear reflections while also isolating the driver from pressure variations within the main cabinet.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/bowers-wilkins-703-d3-loudspeakers-review

One of my favorite tests of a speaker’s mettle is “Disc Wars” from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. It’s Daft Punk’s synths plus the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s thick, and it is easily diminished by a speaker that can’t keep up with the dual demands of a full orchestra and relentless subwoofer-crushing synth bass.

I auditioned the track at live music volume levels three separate times. First with the 703 S3s alone, 2.0, no room correction. Then as a 2.1 system, with just one DB3D pitching in below 40 Hz while the speakers run full range, again no room correction. And then I let loose the big guns and ran all four subs along with the speakers while using a 60 Hz crossover and applying room correction below 300 Hz—which is roughly where room effects start to dominate the bass response. The result? Three distinct presentations, each with its merits.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/cadence-arca

After using the Arca in both my listening rooms, I concluded that it was better suited to the larger, better-damped area. Bass output from the speaker was full, very well extended and apparently with a classically flat response. I detected little or no sign that it had been tailored for room-matched alignment.

It quickly became apparent that the Arca displayed more character than usually encountered these days, its rich, sweet sound, overall balance and the way it voiced the listening room being reminiscent of an old 1957 Quad ESL with extra bass extension and power. Rock music played through the Arca will sound too saccharine for some tastes, though its delicate upper range helps to control the effect of distortion and roughness in poorer quality material. Conversely, many speakers do not have the clean, deep bass – of virtually subwoofer quality – which this Cadence design can provide.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/neat-acoustics-orkestra

This is more than just a ‘big Ekstra’. The Orkestra takes everything that the slimmer floorstander does so effectively and adds a level of scale and effortlessness that ensures it will tackle pretty much anything you care to throw at it with assurance and genuine talent. You can buy prettier speakers for the asking price and they will need to be driven rather than powered, but so long as you can meet these two requirements you have a speaker that is capable of truly extraordinary performance that is hard to rival at the money. Neat’s evolutionary journey continues to deliver the goods and it’s fascinating to see where it takes us next. 

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/neat-acoustics-orkestra

This is more than just a ‘big Ekstra’. The Orkestra takes everything that the slimmer floorstander does so effectively and adds a level of scale and effortlessness that ensures it will tackle pretty much anything you care to throw at it with assurance and genuine talent. You can buy prettier speakers for the asking price and they will need to be driven rather than powered, but so long as you can meet these two requirements you have a speaker that is capable of truly extraordinary performance that is hard to rival at the money. Neat’s evolutionary journey continues to deliver the goods and it’s fascinating to see where it takes us next.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/canton-vento-100-loudspeaker

In terms of fit and finish the speaker ticks all the boxes, including high-quality bi-wire enabled terminals around the back. The Vento 100 is raised over a broader plinth that lets the speaker ‘float’ above the floor and allows its down-facing bass port to vent uniformly out from the base of the cabinet. Spikes can be added and, of course, the Vento 100 doesn’t mind standing a bit closer to the wall compared to rear-firing bass reflex boxes.

The ‘100 is the biggest of eight passive Vento models, alongside the Vento 90 and Vento 80 floorstanders, Vento 30 and Vento 20 standmount/bookshelf speakers, and centre channel, surround and on-wall options for multichannel systems. The range extends further, though: Canton has been a proponent of active designs for decades, offering so-called ‘Smart’ versions of many of its loudspeakers, and that’s the case here. Not of the Vento 100, but there is the wireless, active Vento 9 S2, related to the Vento 90, with claimed built-in amplification of 600W and support for 96kHz/24-bit playback.