I too had high expectations, but I remember seeing a video about the design process of the engineers who made it, I recall them saying that they built it based on what they heard sounded good using their ears... So i guess thats what happens when you design blindly~
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SVS Ultra Evolution
- Thread starter CleanSound
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Of course, that's what the greater audiophool market wants to hear and believe.
If you told them it was designed by the measurements and the book, they'd rip it to pieces in the media reviews.
Penelinfi
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Soon™ after the patreon early access finishes with Erin's Audio corner
I had a demo of these a couple of weeks back at a show. Towers on their own with music and the full Atmos system with a scene from 'Top Gun - Maverick.'
The full system with amplification, surrounds, centre, three subs was £30K
The full system really knocked it out of the park with the action scene from the film. It was flawless.
With music and just the tower speakers it was a little less convincing, but I suspect the relatively minor problem with low frequencies could be sorted with better amplification and EQ.
The ability to reach high levels without distortion was noticeable. For price/performance I'd give them an A minus. On an absolute scale I'd give them a B plus.
It's a lot of speaker for the money.
The full system with amplification, surrounds, centre, three subs was £30K
The full system really knocked it out of the park with the action scene from the film. It was flawless.
With music and just the tower speakers it was a little less convincing, but I suspect the relatively minor problem with low frequencies could be sorted with better amplification and EQ.
The ability to reach high levels without distortion was noticeable. For price/performance I'd give them an A minus. On an absolute scale I'd give them a B plus.
It's a lot of speaker for the money.
In any assessment I always listen out for problems rather than take the audiophile approach of trying to gauge how much of the emotion in Diana Krall's voice is being conveyed whilst ignoring numerous terrible issues with the actual sound quality
'Flawless' = I did not hear it doing anything wrong. That doesn't mean it's the best one in the world.
Sorry to be a pest, but flawless means what it means - without a fault, or perfect.
That system might have been solid which for that price it should have been. But people should not be expecting or imagining that this system is flawless as that word is used in our common language.
If I was looking for a system in this price range, I would do a really thorough research as it is pretty crowded space. Some people might even find that spending half the budget is what gets them to the sweetest spot.
That system might have been solid which for that price it should have been. But people should not be expecting or imagining that this system is flawless as that word is used in our common language.
If I was looking for a system in this price range, I would do a really thorough research as it is pretty crowded space. Some people might even find that spending half the budget is what gets them to the sweetest spot.
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Personally I'm not looking for a home theatre (I did Dolby Surround, Pro Logic, Dolby Digital, got up to 5.1 then went back to ordinary 2 channel and that's not even set up right now) and I've been out of that game a long time, so my only reference for current A/V is really the local cinema - and it was as good as that.
For all I know it could be done better for less. But I accept your criticism
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Well regardless here in San Antonio our last real brick and morter audio store Bjorns has them in. It's not as ideal as auditioning them in my room but I do plan on going and really giving them a good listen in their place
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Stereophile review is up.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at corporate SVS ?
I'm sure they had greater hopes for the reviews of the TOTL Pinnacles though they should have known about
the problems in the FR? For sure they have their problems but still they are a LOT of speaker for the money.
Time will tell on how well they sell or how soon SVS comes up with a Mk2 with a more balanced FR?
I'm sure they had greater hopes for the reviews of the TOTL Pinnacles though they should have known about
the problems in the FR? For sure they have their problems but still they are a LOT of speaker for the money.
Time will tell on how well they sell or how soon SVS comes up with a Mk2 with a more balanced FR?
Good that they came up with these towers. Space is crowded in this range so not sure if they really have a home run here.
As a side note, their center is not matching to the towers in any meaningful way so as far as I am concerned a good reason to pass and look for other brands that have better LCR options.
Agreed, the center channel is probably the weakest link in the chain of the new line.
Someone really needs to go back to the drawing board on that one..
I visited the SVS booth at the CES and listened to the Ultra Evolution Pinnacle. Each tower has two vented compartments each containing two 8" drivers, for a total of four compartments containing a total of eight drivers. I didn't attempt to distinguish the tuning frequency of the vent although I'm curious. My informal listening impression was "excellent bass". The imaging was smeared (there was no "holographic" pretense, or as Siegfried Linkwitz might remark, there was no "headphones at a distance"). The voicing was too "warm" at the cost of being "analytical". Although the low end was enormously satisfying, I would not have these in my listening room. I'm sure there is a time alignment issue that could be addressed by active crossover and careful tuning, but the physical layout might present alignment challenges impossible to overcome with signal processing.
I am confident the SVS engineers prioritized the consumer's expectations for home theater (especially since their booth was configured specifically to emphasize the home theater application) and not the esoteric hi-fi enthusiast listening room. Home theater has a center-channel speaker and surround speakers that would overwhelm imaging problems that can heard when listening to purely stereo.
For home theater applications, these loudspeakers would be fantastic. For hi-fi purists applications, not so much. Since I'm not a movie buff, nor do I have a movie watching room that could accomidate these speakers (I only have one modestly-sized television in the whole house), these are not for me. I'm concerned about their marketing strategy. The typical home theater SVS customer is proabably attracted to their subwoofer products, which oblivate the need for the Pinnacle's bass capability. That leaves the home theatre enthusiast that has no desire for a subwoofer as the Pinnacle's primary customer base.
I am confident the SVS engineers prioritized the consumer's expectations for home theater (especially since their booth was configured specifically to emphasize the home theater application) and not the esoteric hi-fi enthusiast listening room. Home theater has a center-channel speaker and surround speakers that would overwhelm imaging problems that can heard when listening to purely stereo.
For home theater applications, these loudspeakers would be fantastic. For hi-fi purists applications, not so much. Since I'm not a movie buff, nor do I have a movie watching room that could accomidate these speakers (I only have one modestly-sized television in the whole house), these are not for me. I'm concerned about their marketing strategy. The typical home theater SVS customer is proabably attracted to their subwoofer products, which oblivate the need for the Pinnacle's bass capability. That leaves the home theatre enthusiast that has no desire for a subwoofer as the Pinnacle's primary customer base.
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If they are no good for stereo, they are no good for HT either. HT is not the leftover from stereo, it also requires genuinely good speakers and there are many. These seem to be going lower, but then there are subwoofers for that that do even a better job.
You don't want the sound of the car door closing or the birds singing to be "artificial"?
Joking aside, there are many aspects of HT like drums, voices, music, that require competent speakers. I never heard these, so no specific comments except the general ones above.
I haven't had a chance to hear them yet, maybe next month at the Tampa show?
If you heard a "smeared" imaging I am curious, a bunch of effort went into time alignment of the drivers.
I've read both the Stereophile, Audioholics, Erin's and others and see no reason to support this finding beyond an improper setup or MLP?
As to the speaker being voiced to the warm side, yes that has been the finding from all measuring and very possibly correctable with a bit of DRC?
No speaker is perfect but at this pricing level, on balance, it will be hard to find something much better for Stereo or Multich playback.
In the end TOTL performance has the same goal for all.
Neric
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I have had the Titans for a little over a week now. They are a large upgrade from the Prime Pinnacles I had in the theater room before. For 4k it's pretty insane how good they are. I have an AVM90 so ARC does it's magic. They are detailed and have very quick bass when the music calls for it. I've done may hours of Beat saber with just the two titans on.
They are excellent for $5k speakers but I prefer extremely defined imaging. My Triangles have razor-sharp imaging. I can localize individual instruments exactly across a horizontal landscape that extends beyond the speakers. The SVS Pinnacles aren't as sharp as I prefer. Localization is fuzzy and the horizontal landscape is "smeared". However, the time alignment might be superb for vertical (standing vs. sitting) or variable sitting distance. I didn't test those attributes during my listening session. I selected a distance that seemed ideal for the setup's toe-in and separation and listened during a stationary seated position, with my ear height in the chair above the tweeter's plane. Since this was a on-time listening session with setup constraints, perhaps I could idealize a setup in my listening room that solves the horizontal imaging problem.
