SVS Ultra Bookshelf Speaker Review

[daftcombo]

I think Floyd should join this community and chip in with his expertise!!

//Mike

See here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/speakers-distortion.5920/post-133869
And here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/speakers-and-im-distortion.8082/post-198788

 

[justcheeze]

I own an SVS sub and their customer service has been amazing, on par with Bryston (tops)

I agree, SVS customer service is still industry leading. I've also dealt with Rythmik and PSA too and they are in no way anywhere behind SVS either as far as customer service go.

 

[Theriverlethe]

Agree. The SVS SB-2000 Pro that I purchased brand new failed after 1.5 months. The plate amp completely died. Clearly, this all happened because I didn't operate my SVS sub while blindfolded. And because I was so biased by being able to see my SVS sub, a series of high energy placebo waves radiated from my neocortex into one of the non-audiophile capacitors, resulting in catastrophic failure.

I'm still running an SB12-NSD that I bought used, along with a PB12-NSD that I got for a steep discount because of shipping damage to the veneer.

 

[Theriverlethe]

It would be interesting to test SVS' three-way tower designs to see what happens in the midrange. Supposedly the new Prime Pinnacle has less elevated treble. I bought my Prime Towers on the basis of an Audioholics review that showed good objective and subjective performance:

https://www.audioholics.com/tower-speaker-reviews/svs-prime-tower-and-center-loudspeaker-review

 

[amirm]

If he would say something like "you look kinda pale, you probably have an X disease, take some of those pills" instead of sending me to do proper tests to determine what I actually have, then no, I definitely wouldn't go to that doctor again.
And this scenario is pretty much exactly what you pulled here.

It is the same situation but goes directly against your argument. I have those measurements and I use them just like your doctor to make my subjective determination. I am not just going by the look of the speaker as you imply with the analogy.

 

[MZKM]

Supposedly the new Prime Pinnacle has less elevated treble.

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

Super wide directivity at 4kHz will likely make it sound bright.

 

[amirm]

As someone already wrote earlier, we seem to be noise limited; it is most obvious in the treble. If you start at 106 dB, there is an obvious steep drop above 10 kHz reflecting H2 leaving the ~20 kHz measurement BW. It's still there at 101 dB, but noise is starting to come up beyond ~12k, and by 96 dB the steep drop is barely visible if at all, with noise floor coming up around 5 dB for each 6 dB step below that (close enough for me).

Why there is an appreciable processing noise floor after the measurement bandwidth limiting is a good question for someone more familiar with the algorithm used.

The AP measurements are currently in much noisier environment. As I indicated earlier, I plan to move them to a more quiet location to help with noise (both for microphone and for people living in the house ).

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Frankly speaking, their subs are no longer the king of value and performance as they once were either. They've long been beaten by Rythmik, Hsu and even their former owner who has now formed PSA.

I was critical of them on AVS and I was called a hater, I told SVS that they're going down the route of Apple if they're following their trend of clinging on to blind non-brand agnostic customers and not chasing for excellence like they used to do. Not saying they no longer make good subs, they still do but they're not as great as the price they're asking for.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with SVS subwoofers, and their customer service has been top notch. I wasn’t impressed by the Rhythmik I owned. However, I’d really like to try PSAs subwoofers.

 

[amirm]

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with SVS subwoofers, and their customer service has been top notch. I wasn’t impressed by the Rhythmik I owned. However, I’d really like to try PSAs subwoofers.

As a customer of SVS, your views are obviously biased. Do you have a study that backs what you said? If not, it would be good to not have your biased subjective opinion about such things. We are Audio Science Review. Not "random guy opinion review!"

 

[MZKM]

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with SVS subwoofers, and their customer service has been top notch. I wasn’t impressed by the Rhythmik I owned. However, I’d really like to try PSAs subwoofers.

What did the SVS do better than the Rythmik?
I don’t know about Rythmik’s lower end (other than they go deeper than SVS), but their more expensive models are low in distortion, have group delay below 1 cycle, and have fast decay.
SVS does have room EQ, which is a huge plus.

 

[Theriverlethe]

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

Super wide directivity at 4kHz will likely make it sound bright.

I run my Prime Towers with the grilles on. Audioholics showed it attenuating the brightness a bit, along with narrowing dispersion. Do the Ultras even have grilles?

 

[MZKM]

I run my Prime Towers with the grilles on. Audioholics showed it attenuating the brightness a bit, along with narrowing dispersion. Do the Ultras even have grilles?

Yes, you can see the pegs for them on the baffle. I am also baffled (hah) that for $1000 you don’t get magnetic grilles, the $90 Neumi BS5 that @hardisj reviewed has them. This also goes for Ascend Acoustics.

 

[Theriverlethe]

Yes, you can see the pegs for them on the baffle. I am also baffled (hah) that for $1000 you don’t get magnetic grilles, the $90 Neumi BS5 that @hardisj reviewed has them. This also goes for Ascend Acoustics.

Did Amir run his tests without the grilles? I don't think I'd want to listen to that tweeter unfiltered either. I also have significant room treatment that I got before learning Toole's recommendations, so that probably helps a bit.

 

[amirm]

Did Amir run his tests without the grilles?

Yes. That is how I measure and listen to every speaker with some rare exceptions which I note.

 

[Theriverlethe]

Yes. That is how I measure and listen to every speaker with some rare exceptions which I note.

You probably should have made an exception for this one.

 

[daftcombo]

You probably should have made an exception for this one.

Why?

 

[Theriverlethe]

Why?

The Audioholics review showed the grilles attenuating brightness on the SVS Prime, which use the same tweeter.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Couldn't it be a worst than average crossover implementation? From Amir's graph, slopes are not steep and there is quite a bit of superposition. What if the drivers are not properly time aligned?

I'm pretty sure that any deficiencies in the speaker could be corrected with a better crossover. The drivers themselves seem very high quality. Unfortunately, I don't happen to have a spare Ultra hiding in the closet. It might make an interesting experiment if one were to magically appear.
I'm not sure what your definition of "time alignment" is. For a conventional speaker with a perfectly vertical baffle and a 4th order acoustic Linkwitz-Riley crossover, proper time alignment would simply mean that the tweeter output and the woofer output arrive at the ear at the same point in their cycle, e.g. they're both at the crest or trough of, say, a 1 kHz test tone. However, they will be a full cycle apart. If you've done everything else right, that will produce a flat on-axis response. Toole maintains that the ear is not sensitive to phase, so a flat response by itself would be sufficient. I don't know what acoustic slopes are used on the Ultra, or whether cyclic alignment between the drivers would be necessary for proper summing at the crossover point. But I doubt that any anomalies Amir was hearing were due to a phase issue per se.

 

[ribosradagast]

Unfortunately, I don't happen to have a spare Ultra hiding in the closet. It might make an interesting experiment if one were to magically appear.

Mine have been to your house before and could make the trip again... just sayin'

 

[preload]

I'm still running an SB12-NSD that I bought used, along with a PB12-NSD that I got for a steep discount because of shipping damage to the veneer.

That's great, but many folks here won't believe you because your subjective observations were obtained without blinding. They may ask you to re-assess whether your subs are still running, but this time with a blindfold on. Also, how did you know there was shipping damage to the veneer if you could SEE IT!?