S-520 Build Quality and Setup

One thing I’m constantly on guard about is assumptions. You hear them all the time, “Brand X makes the best speakers,” or “silver cable is better than copper” or “Internet Direct speakers give you more bang for your buck than brick and mortar brands.” In the public consciousness, these statements, once said enough times, start to take on a kind of “truth” in people’s minds. It takes a big product or a big article in the right place at the right time to dispel these myths. Usher Audio is looking to dispel the idea that you need to search the Internet for quality bookshelf speakers at a reasonable price.

I’ve been a big proponent of Internet Direct speakers. I’ve reviewed them, owned them, and loved them. They have their drawbacks, sure, but for the price they are usually hard to beat. When Usher Audio approached us about a review, I picked out a bookshelf speaker towards the middle of the price range of their catalog. Much to my surprise, they suggested their newest and least expensive speaker. For a company whose most expensive set of speakers tops $16k, to recommend a $400 pair of bookshelves showed a lot of confidence. My curiosity piqued, I waited for the arrival of the S-520’s restlessly.

Build Quality

When the Usher Audio box showed up on my doorstep, I was confused by its size - it was so small. Then I tried to pick it up. To say I was shocked is an understatement. Fifteen pounds a speaker doesn’t sound like a lot but these speakers are SOLID. After reviewing a number of Internet direct brands, I had come to expect a certain size in a bookshelf speaker. The S-520’s were only a pound shy of the weight of my old Axiom m22’s which are easily twice the size and have an extra woofer! Either they are packing this enclosure with lead or we’ve got a seriously engineered speaker on our hands.

The piano black finish on the S-520’s is without reproach. Clean lines, rounded corners, the fit and finish on these speakers is amazing. The one “seam” is hidden behind the grill and while it may be more visible on other finishes (particularly the wood grain from the pictures I’ve seen) with the grill off, on the black, it is all but invisible. The 1” tweeter is covered by a small wire mesh grill and is offset to make room for the port. The pair is actually a mirror image of each other so that the port is on the left side of one and the right of the other. The 5” woofer is clear so that you can see the cross member of the basket, the spider, and some of the insulation. Gimmicky? Sure, but I like it. The phase plug in the center of the woofer is real and not for show.

You know those stories where someone finds a deal for a Porsche for $1 in the classifieds, checks it out and it turns out to be a disgruntled spouse looking to screw their partner on the sale? That’s what opening up the Usher S-520’s was like for me. Everything I thought I knew to be true about “budget” speakers went right out the window. Fully shielded drivers? Yep. Threaded inserts for each of the woofer/tweeter screws? Check. Cast baskets? Uh huh. High quality drivers? Check. One inch think MDF? Looks like. High quality components in the crossover? Absolutely. Every single element was a step above what I was expecting to see. These are the types of components you’d expect to see in the top of the line, no expenses spared speaker in a product line. This isn’t what you expect to find in a $400 a pair “budget” speaker. I just don’t see how Usher can make a speaker with these components and not lose money on every sale.

Each edge of the cabinet absolutely dripped with glue and the interior lined with insulation. The bottom had a grey cotton blend that was stapled to the cabinet that surrounded the woofer and ran up the back wall. Around the tweeter was a porous white polyfill that I usually see in these sorts of speakers. Each of the drivers had a rubber ring between it and the cabinet it to reduce vibrations during operation. The crossover was so large that I don’t think I could have gotten it out had I dared to unscrew it from the back wall. Even though it was flush with the top of the cabinet, it overhung the binding post opening by almost an inch! Between the circuit board and the wall was a dense rubber layer to once again eliminate vibrations. Let me just sum this up for any that are skimming this – The build quality of the Usher S-520’s is beyond compare. After conferring with the other Audioholic reviewers, we all agree that we’ve never, EVER, seen a speaker at this price point with this compliment of high quality components. It is unreal!

Setup

Setting up bookshelf speakers isn’t exactly brain surgery – Grab a couple of stands, set them to either side of your display, and you’re good to go. Right? Well, there’s a little thing that audiophiles refer to as the “golden triangle.” The idea is that you set the speakers so that the distance between you and each of the speakers and the distance between the two speakers is all the same (yes, and equilateral triangle). Then you point the speakers directly at you (or just over your shoulder as indicated in the Usher Audio setup manual) and sit down to enter audio nirvana. Well, that’s probably a good place to start but I’m more of a pragmatist. Your room probably isn’t set up so that you can place everything equidistant from each other plus, you just MIGHT want to have someone else enjoy the music with you (or you’d just buy headphones, wouldn’t you?) so the suggested severity of the toe-in might not work.

No, I’m more for experimenting with positioning and placement. There are plenty of speakers that shouldn’t be set up in this way – for example those that try to attain a flat off-axis response as they will sound bright pointed right at you. You’ll never know what will work for your ears or your room until you try. My first question after I unpacked the speakers was, “Which side does the port go on, inside or outside?” There didn’t really seem to be any clear directions in the manual so I tried both. To my ears, I couldn’t really hear a difference. This is one of those things that, as a reviewer, I think, “OK, if I can hear a difference here, other reviewers will think I’m cool. Well, I did everything I could to hear that difference. I switched the speakers, listened to the same passages over and over, and eventually just stood about two feet in front of one of the speakers with my ears at tweeter height walking back and forth (about 30 degrees off axis). No matter which side of the speaker I was on, I really couldn’t hear a significant sonic difference. So I set them up with the port on the outside (I thought it looked better).

The speaker sits almost a foot high with the center of the tweeter about 9 ½ inches from the bottom of the rubber feet. The feet are permanently attached – no ridiculous spikes on a bookshelf here. I experimented with the toe in quite a bit and decided that either pointed straight ahead or perhaps with a little toe in was best sonically (see below for description). You’ll want to experiment on your own to see what works best for you.

Emotiva Audio was gracious enough to provide their Reference Audio Series which consists of the RSP-1 stereo preamplifier and the RPA-1 stereo amp. This is an analogue only system which does very little to alter the signal other than providing a summed filtered RCA output so that you can utilize a subwoofer. At 200 watts per channel, the dual mono configuration of the RPA-1 will provide more than enough power for most ANY speaker especially the Usher S-520’s. Paired with the Denon 3910, I had at my disposal equipment that will provide the S-520’s (or any other stereo pair of speakers) the purity of signal with power reserves to spare. There will be no doubt that any imperfections revealed in my testing are a result of the speakers and not the electronics.

The S-520’s are front ported which should make placement a little easier than a rear ported speaker. During playback, even at insane levels, I was surprised at how little air was being pushed through the port. I’m used to putting my hand up to the port and feeling a rush of wind as the woofer(s) pump air in and out of the speaker enclosure. This can lead to port noise. With the S-520’s, port noise was NEVER a problem. They are a bit insensitive and I was worried that they may demand some solid external amplification over the typical run of the mill receiver. While I did all my listening tests on the Emotive Reference Audio Series, I did briefly hook up the S-520’s to the Denon AVR-2307 to see how they would react to a mid-level receiver. Much to my relief, they did well. If you are looking at the S-520’s, you wouldn’t be wasting money on an external amp but you don’t absolutely need it. Think of it this way, with the money you just saved on the Usher’s, you can easily purchase a decent amp and STILL save money over a set of speakers that wouldn’t sound as good!