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SVS Ultra Bookshelf Speaker Review

Murmon

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Apr 18, 2021
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Open your bookshelfs, there's a lot of work in there!
The parts from which the crossover is made cost nothing. The shoe connections are made of iron, the connectors do not stick to the speakers. Unknown wire. Inside, it looks like copper, covered with an unknown composition.
First, I changed the wiring to an Audioquest. soldered to speakers and connectors. Replaced the 8.2 uF capacitor with a twitter. An induction tester to measure coils is coming soon. There is something to do!
 

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Xmech team

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Conclusions
Having looked at the measurements first before listening, I thought they would either sound good "out of the box" or do so with just a bit of EQ. That did not happen. Try as I did, I could not like the sound with or without EQ. Yes, I could see the appeal of boosted upper bass in giving "warmth" to the speaker. But too much of that was well, too much of a good thing. I am puzzled where the sharpness was coming from seeing how I could not tame it. Perhaps directivity error was causing this.

I consider myself a newbie in audio measurements, but a firm believer in science. About how SVS Ultra Bookshelf data didn't match real-life listening, how about @amirm collaborates with other sound engineers and investigate this issue further and come to a conclusive result? I feel bad that the discrepancies between this test and reality will always act as a serious weakness to many newbies who want a reinforcement to their believes and misconceptions.

Is it too much to ask @amirm, @hardisj, and others to collaborate and increase the validity of audio science? I believe even quantitative data by Harman engineers needs a refresh but no one seems to be stepping up to the task. I will personally contribute to a GoFundMe for such a research, I don't think large organizations are willing to go that route any time soon in the current cutthroat competition. Thanks
 

jonfitch

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Danny Ritchie wants $205.00 for this crossover upgrade for this. While it makes the off-axis sound better, I find it interesting that most of his crossover kits seem to create a off-axis peak in the tweeter around 3K.
 

escott82

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I can't find a way to PM you, and can't buy your modified bookshelves, but I have a couple of questions: (A) Have you considered offering a "kit" of the new crossover components (I am guessing that the 6.5" midrange and the 1" tweeter in my Ultra Towers are the same as the components in the Ultra Bookshelf)? and (B) Is there any easy way of narrowing the directivity of the 1" tweeter to more closely match the 6.5" driver, like shoehorn in a waveguide, replace the tweeter with one having more controlled directivity, or? Thanks.
I have the same curiosity. I have a 1” peerless corundum tweeter and it would fit with some small modification to the hole(the magnet is slightly bigger). I thought about dropping it into the towers and measuring both without changing anything. The faceplate is bigger than the standard svs face place tweeter. It would be possible to attach it to the svs faceplate somehow. Now that’s not a wave guide but I’m also curious how a wave guide would work with them.
I opened up the towers the top section is pretty small. Sealed for all 3 drivers with small holes that go from the bottom and top midrange woofers. I added better insulation into the cabinet up top also they use dinky white padding that does nothing.
 

escott82

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Danny Ritchie wants $205.00 for this crossover upgrade for this. While it makes the off-axis sound better, I find it interesting that most of his crossover kits seem to create a off-axis peak in the tweeter around 3K.
I think that is the 30 degree off axis measurement. That’s a pretty big off axis most normally not seen in seating position. I wouldn’t worry about that little bump too much.
 

MrPeabody

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I consider myself a newbie in audio measurements, but a firm believer in science. About how SVS Ultra Bookshelf data didn't match real-life listening, how about @amirm collaborates with other sound engineers and investigate this issue further and come to a conclusive result? I feel bad that the discrepancies between this test and reality will always act as a serious weakness to many newbies who want a reinforcement to their believes and misconceptions.

Is it too much to ask @amirm, @hardisj, and others to collaborate and increase the validity of audio science? I believe even quantitative data by Harman engineers needs a refresh but no one seems to be stepping up to the task. I will personally contribute to a GoFundMe for such a research, I don't think large organizations are willing to go that route any time soon in the current cutthroat competition. Thanks

In an ideal world, things would be different. amir and hardisj would each have cloned a dozen or so copies of themselves, and all the clones would be hard at work. Also helping with all the heavy lifting.

There actually was something in the measurements Amir took that corroborated with what he didn't like. It has been pointed out several times, starting very shortly after the review was first posted. In his cumulative spectral plot there is a slow decay in energy at around 5 kHz. Another milder one at 1.5 kHz. With a single oscillator you would not expect this without there being a corresponding peak in frequency response. But real drivers can behave like multiple oscillators, especially where there are standing waves in an undamped diaphragm material. The annoying metallic sound that bothers many people with metal domes and cones often does not show up clearly in frequency response measurements. But when it is present, it shows up in the cumulative spectral plot, which is a useful plot notwithstanding that many people think it is meaningless. Not all drivers with metal diaphragms do this to any distracting degree, but many do, and for the ones that do, you can no only hear it but you can see it in the measurements so long as the measurement is up to the task.
 

Shives

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I just had the joy of playing around with the SVS ultra books and the ultra center. I can wholeheartedly say I don’t like the sound of them at all.l, and that’s my ears.. I know.
Maybe it was a mix with my Denon 3700, but I somehow doubt it. The OEM networks in the center were not even mounted down solid. The screws not screwed in all the way. Sad for the money, they could not bother screwing down the network all the way.
I hear good things about there subs, and had some good hopes for these.. cabinets were not to bad. Anyways, I wish anyone who owns them great luck.
 

Denon545

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I just had the joy of playing around with the SVS ultra books and the ultra center. I can wholeheartedly say I don’t like the sound of them at all.l, and that’s my ears.. I know.
Maybe it was a mix with my Denon 3700, but I somehow doubt it. The OEM networks in the center were not even mounted down solid. The screws not screwed in all the way. Sad for the money, they could not bother screwing down the network all the way.
I hear good things about there subs, and had some good hopes for these.. cabinets were not to bad. Anyways, I wish anyone who owns them great luck.

I've auditioned the SVS Ultra center as well as the Infinity RC263. I was surprised at how much better the Infinity sounds.
 

Shives

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I've auditioned the SVS Ultra center as well as the Infinity RC263. I was surprised at how much better the Infinity sounds.
I was shocked. The insides of the cabinet are well built but made me scratch my head. I hear about issues with the center, hey... maybe that could be measured at some point. I’m glad you got out of it. Hey, did you find the center overly bright!? Was not as bright as the books.
 

Denon545

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I was shocked. The insides of the cabinet are well built but made me scratch my head. I hear about issues with the center, hey... maybe that could be measured at some point. I’m glad you got out of it. Hey, did you find the center overly bright!? Was not as bright as the books.

I didn’t find the Ultra center to be that bright. It just sounded small. It seemed narrow as well, like the sound didn’t expand past the speaker width/horizontally.
 

Shives

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Ahh! Maybe it’s how it was aligned.. yes!! I agree. It sounds stuck with in its area. Not very, open.
Anyways!! Good chat! Good luck! Good luck SVS owners.

I wonder if there is a list of speakers tested and by results like the DAC’s. I guess that would be more subjective, sort of? I’ll have to look
 

keenly

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I find the same thing with the SVS elevation speakers; very bright to me, at times harsh.
 

BN1

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I didn’t find the Ultra center to be that bright. It just sounded small. It seemed narrow as well, like the sound didn’t expand past the speaker width/horizontally.
Just rec'd an Ultra Center to replace Elac Debut 5.2 center hoping for an improvement in dialogue (my ears are most of the problem). First impression is that the Ultra cc is a bit "edgier" than the "laid back" Elac which seems to improve the dialogue clarity just a bit. The off-axis clarity appears to be some better as well but maybe I'm looking for that improvement due to the 3-way SVS. Definitely heard a volume increase and ended up dropping the cc bias (volume) by a couple of dBs. All-in-all, some improvement over the Elac. I've got about 50 days more trial period but likely I will keep the SVS. If so, the question becomes whether to get the SVS bookshelfs to replace the Elac Debut 5.2 L & R ? Got the cc before the price increase but will have to pay more for the bookshelfs.
 

ronnzi

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I’ve had the SVS Ultra center paired with two Prime Pinnacle towers for a few months now (got them all before the price increase). I’m not an expert by any means, but measuring them using REW, the Ultra center is a little brighter, while the Pinnacles roll off more on the highs, which I like. In my room, the Pinnacles have kind of a nasty bump around 4khz, which I was able to take care of using my Onkyo RZ-810’s graphical EQ menu. The Ultra center had issues around 1.5khz, which I also tamed using the Onkyo EQ, though because I can’t adjust the Q using the Onkyo, it’s knocking down around 2khz lower than I would like. It would definitely benefit from a better room EQ system, which I’m hoping to get in the future (perhaps adding Dirac to my Onkyo via a MiniDSP ddrc 88a?).

Anyways, besides the couple of bumps in the frequency response, I’m also using the Onkyo EQ to knock down the higher end frequencies on the SVS ultra center more generally so that it matches up better with the Prime Pinnacle towers. Initially I thought the ultra center sounded a little small as well, but I ended up raising the center just a bit, so that the tweeter is more inline with my ears (making it a little higher by an inch or two when compared to the tweeters on my towers). This helped make the placement of the center sound more natural.

Overall, with EQ applied, these SVS speakers are sounding pretty great to me. A little bright without EQ, but not terrible (even given that my room doesn’t do well with brightness, with huge ceiling to floor windows). Even with my limited EQ abilities right now, they’ve gotten really close to exactly what I’m looking for. With that in mind, I think if I had something with Dirac, I’d be able to get them exactly where I want them.

For what it’s worth, I’m amplifying these using a Monoprice x7 200wpc amp. Also have 2 SVS Prime satellites that I’m using as surrounds (Eq’d to roll off the high frequencies). Also have two HSU subs for the lowend, eq’d with a MiniDSP 2x4hd.

I would love for Amir to somehow test the SVS Ultra Center and/or the Prime Pinnacle towers, since I wonder if he would find them to have the same issues he found with the Ultra bookshelves.

For me, the SVS speakers in my room gave me a good starting point, and are shaping up to be pretty great with the right EQ/DSP. That, coupled with what I felt was a very reasonable price and amazing customer service, I’m very satisfied so far. I know I’m limited in the room correction department because of the AccuEq system on my Onkyo RZ-810, so that’s the next thing I’m hoping to improve on.

This is all based on my limited experience, of course. Thought I’d share my experience though.
 
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Belly

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Given the opportunity to buy a used pair of ultra’s with some cosmetic damage for $480 USD and knowing everything in this thread, would you? These would be used in a near field wall mounted 2.1 desk setup primarily for music.
 
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