Usher Audio
Mini Dancer 1
Floorstand Speaker

Overview

The Mini One’s are a two-way system with a factory published sensitivity rating of 87dB/W/m. This makes for a low efficient design allowing for me to turn up the volume control on my preamplifier a bit more than normal. Putting things into perspective my Legacy Focus 20/20 loudspeakers have a 96dB sensitivity rating while the Klipsch Klipschorn comes in at a 104dB rating. Not to fear though as my seventy-watt (as run in mono block configuration for this review) Monarchy Audio SM-70 PRO amplifiers never ran out of steam. The Mini One’s employ Usher’s new Diamond DMD Technology. Here you will find a 1.25” Diamond DMD dome tweeter in use, the same as found on their more expensive models. The diaphragm is made from a synthetic diamond which according to Usher’s brochure is as follows.

“The DMD done is effectively a diamond dome with a reduced mass and a well-controlled, appealing sound signature, resembling very closely a perfect piston in its behavior. This is made possible by its laminated diamond-metal-diamond structure, which consists of a proprietary metal alloy base layer coated with an amorphous diamond-like carbon layer (pure diamond-like carbon has mixed sp3 and sp2 bonds to achieve its desirable properties) on both sides. The base metal layer of the Diamond DMD dome tames all the diamond layers’ unfavorable sonic traits and brings out the best of both materials.”

All their tweeters use Usher’s Symme-Motion technology which allows the driver to move outward and backward in a symmetrical motion for accurate reproduction of the recorded music material. On the back of the Mini One’s are terminals for either a single or bi-wired setup. The Monarchy amplifiers were run as mono blocks in a bi-wired setup which is how I almost always normally use them.