Thiel's CS3.7
(Credit: Thiel)Here's the concept: It's no secret young consumers don't get high-end audio. It just seems like either total BS or an extravagance for the rich. Yes, it can be both of those things, but there's a lot of great, affordable high-end audio that's available to anyone who's truly passionate about music. Here's one quick example, Usher Audio's staggeringly good S-520 speakers that go for $400 a pair (I'll review them in this space soon).
Anyway, a high-end publicist friend of mine proposed this reach out to the youth concept through Rolling Stone magazine. He wanted to blow the magazine's writers away with high-end sound and convinced two of his clients, Canadian electronics manufacturer Bryston, and Thiel, a speaker company from Kentucky, to loan Rolling Stone $40K worth of gear for their reviewers to enjoy for three months. Seems like a great "what if" idea to me. Obviously, the reviewers know music, and I can't wait to hear how they're affected by hearing music like never before.
It's a killer system, with a Bryston BCD-1 CD player, Bryston BP-26 preamp, and Bryston 28B-SST power amps mated with Thiel's astonishing CS3.7 speakers and SS2 subwoofer. For guys used to hearing music over $29 PC speakers it's the equivalent moving up from a skateboard to a Chevy Corvette. Now they'll actually get to hear the music they're critiquing at least as well as the people who recorded the tunes in the first place. Who knows, maybe they'll communicate that experience to their readers. Point is, sound matters, and hearing it with the best possible speakers and electronics is a good idea. We'll see.
The gear, installed at Rolling Stone's NYC office
(Credit: Bryston)
Audiophiles with a hankering for plus size beauties will love these speakers
(Credit: Usher Audio)Pretty much everything about Usher Audio's BE-10 screams "audiophile speaker." It's big, it's beautiful, and it sounds so good you don't even have to be an audiophile to appreciate it. Maybe the "audiophile" tag sounds a tad elitist, but anyone who occasionally gives their undivided attention to the sound of music--meaning they don't read, talk, or otherwise multitask as they listen--could be considered an audiophile. In any case, the BE-10 sounds too good to be ignored, and if that makes it an audiophile speaker, so be it.
Audiophiles with a hankering for plus-size beauties will probably get a little weak in the knees at their first encounter with the curvaceously shapely BE-10. The 4-foot-tall speaker is weighty enough to require a team of two people to unpack, and besides, you won't want to accidentally mar the speakers' exquisitely crafted birch or walnut veneers.
True, most of the better audiophile speakers have always been extraordinarily costly, and over the last decade or so, high-end speaker prices have gone through the roof. Lucky for us, Usher Audio is bucking that trend. Not that I could tell by looking or listening; I had pegged the BE-10 at double its retail price before I knew of its $14,400 MSRP. The BE-10 is the brand's penultimate model, and if that's a little rich for your tastes, Usher offers a range of more affordable stereo and home theater components. Prices start at $400 a pair for the S-520 bookshelf speakers.
I reviewed the BE-10 for the Robb Report Home Entertainment magazine. Here's the link to the full article.
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