SVS - Room 441
Joe: I have had a chance to hear the SVS Ultras before at a GTG in Iowa this past April - you can check out my thoughts here - as well as at Capital AudioFest (check out the show report for impressions there). Plus, I currently own two PB-13 Ultras.
First, some pictures:
The system setup in this room included the following equipment and had the ability to swap from two channel to home theater:
No code has to be inserted here.
Background / Specifications:
Joe: SVS builds all of their products in Ohio, but they have people based in many parts of the US. Many thanks to the SVS folks for allowing Sonnie and I to visit early Friday morning as they were finishing getting the room set up - it was great to be able to sit and listen with just the two of us in there.
The SVS Ultras use a 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, two 6.5" midrange drivers with composite glass-fiber cones, and two 8" side-firing horizontally opposed SVS woofers. They have a stated FR of 28 Hz - 32 kHz with a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, sensitivity of 88 dB , and weigh about 75 lbs a piece. Foam was placed at the first reflection points and behind the speakers on the wall.
Sonnie: It was a pleasure for all of us to meet Smith Freeman, the new designer for SVS. Smith tells us that he has a lot of new ideas and we can expect to see some more exciting speakers and subs coming from SVS. It was also good to see the SVS crew again... and we thoroughly enjoyed the SVS experience, as usual.
Joe's Thoughts / Impressions:
I started out by listening to the 2 channel setup. They imaged dead center for vocals with instruments showing good separation giving a wide soundstage. Guitar and piano detail were very good - you really could hear the pluck of the strings and strike of the piano keys. As a matter of fact, there was one point where you could hear the pianist shift on the bench - excellent detail! Male and female vocal dynamics were handled really well - again, excellent detail with breaths very easily heard. The Roger Waters Three Wishes track showed off the Ultras ability to handle detail once again - cymbals had a great ping and resulting splash and the beginning female vocal part imaged from off to the left as expected. It also showed the Ultras ability to deliver the low end - very impactful. On the Funhouse track, the stick strikes were very crisp - midrange punch was very good and horns were very detailed with no feeling of wanting to shoulder cringe.
We then listened to the home theater setup. There is nothing more for me to say on SVS subs that has not already been said before - great impact and clean to boot. We listened to an orchestral track - The Berlin Concert - and I really got an 'I am there' feeling. The Police Live concert was up next - what stood out here was the system's ability to deliver a good, clean midrange / low end. Last, we got to listen to the Tron light cycle sequence - the whole system really blends well together and gives a great all-around effect.
I have said it before and I will say it again - all in all, this is a very impressive group of speakers made even more appealing due to their very affordable cost. Extremely well done SVS!!
Wayne's Thoughts / Impressions:
We got some nice focus time with the SVS Ultra setup. As we listened through their demo tracks, including Bob Dylan, Miranda Lambert, and Chris Isaak, I was drawn to the upper-mid and high-frequency profile, which they put a lot of work into tailoring on the Ultras. The area around 2 KHz, so critical to detail, is slightly forward and crisp, but not enough to be fatiguing or tiresome, like the difference between an offering of emphasis and having emphasis forced on you. It made the inner details of Bob Dylan's voice pop in a way I like, giving his and other vocals more intimacy. On the Police track later on, Sting's voice seemed constructed of harmonics I had not heard before on other systems.
The highs above that were smooth but a little hard, too. Grasping for descriptors, I envisioned a sound quality precision-milled from machine-grade steel, extremely accurate but somehow hard where you wanted it to be softer and easier. I ended up on my knees on the floor experimenting with ear height relative to drivers. The typical folding chairs provided by the venue raise the listener several inches higher than a normal couch or recliner height would be. I thought the high end sweetened up quite a bit right between the two larger drivers, on the 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter axis, so a regular home seating height would do a lot to soften that tweeter sound and to open up the soundstage at the same time. Otherwise, the soundstage width was fair with little depth, and imaging seemed fair-to-good - proper placement in a treated room would most likely improve both dramatically.
They call the design a 3.5-way, with integrated subwoofer - deep and powerful on their demo tracks, including a cut from Tron Legacy. The home cinema market is squarely in their sights, with center channel, subwoofer, and surround offerings in their lineup. They offer a 45-day in-home evaluation with shipping AND return shipping paid for if you are not happy with their products, plus a 5-year warranty, so they are serious about satisfying their customers.
The 3.5-way nomenclature comes from some interesting tuning of the crossovers between midrange drivers and tweeter. That crossover point is essentially 2 KHz, but actually is slightly different between the upper and lower mid/bass drivers for the purpose of smoothing out the crossover transition and to reduce lobing. Non-parallel walls help eliminate interior resonances. All in all I felt the mid- and low-frequency ranges seemed smooth and well-controlled, as evidenced by on the Mozart Piano Concerto, and the system had an even tonality that would work for home cinema and for two-channel applications.
Dennis' Thoughts / Impressions:
I wasn't able to grab the main listening position (MLP) chair for the TRON Legacy "Light Race" 7.2 demonstration. But even off axis, the sound was anchored firmly at the screen, which was located about 3 ft. behind the L/C/R plane. Full range sound, with really smooth highs, weighty lows, easy to understand dialogue. Most interesting to me was the Ultra Surround, which allows you to have 7.0 sound with only 5 speakers! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
I was able to grab a sweet spot seat for the 2.0 demo. Songs used to audition were:
- Bob Dylan "Man in the Long Black Coat" (this song was used to voice the Ultras)
- Miranda Lambert "Oklahoma Sky"
- Chris Isaak "Wicked Game"
- Mozart 21st Piano Concerto (Alfred Brendel)
Midrange tonality was spot on, the tweeter a little zippy without being harsh. Dynamics were great! Slightly recessed images, as with the 7.2 audition. Midbass was just a little wooly, the low bass was full and meaty, especially considering this was just the towers with no subwoofer augmentation.
Joe: I have had a chance to hear the SVS Ultras before at a GTG in Iowa this past April - you can check out my thoughts here - as well as at Capital AudioFest (check out the show report for impressions there). Plus, I currently own two PB-13 Ultras.
First, some pictures:
The system setup in this room included the following equipment and had the ability to swap from two channel to home theater:
No code has to be inserted here.
Background / Specifications:
Joe: SVS builds all of their products in Ohio, but they have people based in many parts of the US. Many thanks to the SVS folks for allowing Sonnie and I to visit early Friday morning as they were finishing getting the room set up - it was great to be able to sit and listen with just the two of us in there.
The SVS Ultras use a 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, two 6.5" midrange drivers with composite glass-fiber cones, and two 8" side-firing horizontally opposed SVS woofers. They have a stated FR of 28 Hz - 32 kHz with a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, sensitivity of 88 dB , and weigh about 75 lbs a piece. Foam was placed at the first reflection points and behind the speakers on the wall.
Sonnie: It was a pleasure for all of us to meet Smith Freeman, the new designer for SVS. Smith tells us that he has a lot of new ideas and we can expect to see some more exciting speakers and subs coming from SVS. It was also good to see the SVS crew again... and we thoroughly enjoyed the SVS experience, as usual.
Joe's Thoughts / Impressions:
I started out by listening to the 2 channel setup. They imaged dead center for vocals with instruments showing good separation giving a wide soundstage. Guitar and piano detail were very good - you really could hear the pluck of the strings and strike of the piano keys. As a matter of fact, there was one point where you could hear the pianist shift on the bench - excellent detail! Male and female vocal dynamics were handled really well - again, excellent detail with breaths very easily heard. The Roger Waters Three Wishes track showed off the Ultras ability to handle detail once again - cymbals had a great ping and resulting splash and the beginning female vocal part imaged from off to the left as expected. It also showed the Ultras ability to deliver the low end - very impactful. On the Funhouse track, the stick strikes were very crisp - midrange punch was very good and horns were very detailed with no feeling of wanting to shoulder cringe.
We then listened to the home theater setup. There is nothing more for me to say on SVS subs that has not already been said before - great impact and clean to boot. We listened to an orchestral track - The Berlin Concert - and I really got an 'I am there' feeling. The Police Live concert was up next - what stood out here was the system's ability to deliver a good, clean midrange / low end. Last, we got to listen to the Tron light cycle sequence - the whole system really blends well together and gives a great all-around effect.
I have said it before and I will say it again - all in all, this is a very impressive group of speakers made even more appealing due to their very affordable cost. Extremely well done SVS!!
Wayne's Thoughts / Impressions:
We got some nice focus time with the SVS Ultra setup. As we listened through their demo tracks, including Bob Dylan, Miranda Lambert, and Chris Isaak, I was drawn to the upper-mid and high-frequency profile, which they put a lot of work into tailoring on the Ultras. The area around 2 KHz, so critical to detail, is slightly forward and crisp, but not enough to be fatiguing or tiresome, like the difference between an offering of emphasis and having emphasis forced on you. It made the inner details of Bob Dylan's voice pop in a way I like, giving his and other vocals more intimacy. On the Police track later on, Sting's voice seemed constructed of harmonics I had not heard before on other systems.
The highs above that were smooth but a little hard, too. Grasping for descriptors, I envisioned a sound quality precision-milled from machine-grade steel, extremely accurate but somehow hard where you wanted it to be softer and easier. I ended up on my knees on the floor experimenting with ear height relative to drivers. The typical folding chairs provided by the venue raise the listener several inches higher than a normal couch or recliner height would be. I thought the high end sweetened up quite a bit right between the two larger drivers, on the 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter axis, so a regular home seating height would do a lot to soften that tweeter sound and to open up the soundstage at the same time. Otherwise, the soundstage width was fair with little depth, and imaging seemed fair-to-good - proper placement in a treated room would most likely improve both dramatically.
They call the design a 3.5-way, with integrated subwoofer - deep and powerful on their demo tracks, including a cut from Tron Legacy. The home cinema market is squarely in their sights, with center channel, subwoofer, and surround offerings in their lineup. They offer a 45-day in-home evaluation with shipping AND return shipping paid for if you are not happy with their products, plus a 5-year warranty, so they are serious about satisfying their customers.
The 3.5-way nomenclature comes from some interesting tuning of the crossovers between midrange drivers and tweeter. That crossover point is essentially 2 KHz, but actually is slightly different between the upper and lower mid/bass drivers for the purpose of smoothing out the crossover transition and to reduce lobing. Non-parallel walls help eliminate interior resonances. All in all I felt the mid- and low-frequency ranges seemed smooth and well-controlled, as evidenced by on the Mozart Piano Concerto, and the system had an even tonality that would work for home cinema and for two-channel applications.
Dennis' Thoughts / Impressions:
I wasn't able to grab the main listening position (MLP) chair for the TRON Legacy "Light Race" 7.2 demonstration. But even off axis, the sound was anchored firmly at the screen, which was located about 3 ft. behind the L/C/R plane. Full range sound, with really smooth highs, weighty lows, easy to understand dialogue. Most interesting to me was the Ultra Surround, which allows you to have 7.0 sound with only 5 speakers! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
I was able to grab a sweet spot seat for the 2.0 demo. Songs used to audition were:
- Bob Dylan "Man in the Long Black Coat" (this song was used to voice the Ultras)
- Miranda Lambert "Oklahoma Sky"
- Chris Isaak "Wicked Game"
- Mozart 21st Piano Concerto (Alfred Brendel)
Midrange tonality was spot on, the tweeter a little zippy without being harsh. Dynamics were great! Slightly recessed images, as with the 7.2 audition. Midbass was just a little wooly, the low bass was full and meaty, especially considering this was just the towers with no subwoofer augmentation.