We noticed this while playing music, but we noticed it even more when listening to movies. Sure, we got as much excitement as we could handle when it came to dinosaur roars from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the thunder of turbine engines in The Wandering Earth. But the one thing we did find was that dialogue didn’t sound quite as crisp as we would have liked. In addition, elements like bullets whizzing by didn’t sound all that threatening, without the upper ranges being able to provide the energy.

SVS did a great job designing and building the Ultra Tower. It is a beautiful speaker in sound and looks. I would say this is probably my favorite speaker in this price range. You can confidently use it in a theater, two-channel music system, or a combo system. I think it is the ultimate dual use speaker for 2000 dollars a pair. Looking at the price point of 2000 dollars you have competition such as Monitor Audio Silver 200’s, the very entry-level Martin Logan 20i, and Bower’s and Wilkins 806. There are others as well, however, none of them offer the low end of dual 8in subs, as well as two mid-range drivers. Ultra Tower’s don’t need the addition of a powered sub like the Motion line up from Martin Logan does. I will say they sound good with a sub, but nearly as much as a requirement. I think the SVS has a sound more akin to higher-priced and larger floorstanding speakers. SVS’s whole line up really offers great value and quality. If you are looking to build a theater these need to be on your audition list, as well if you want an all-in-one audio room. For music specific rooms I think there are better options for not much more money but the Ultra Towers still deserve a listen. Cast aluminum basket to ensure precise alignment of critical components and additional heat-sinking capacity In 2005 the company made its first foray into the surround-sound speaker market with the S series. In 2008 came the audiophile M series. In 2011 SVS decided to revamp their entire product line, luring Mark Mason, previous design team manager at PSB, to join them as new product management director. Mr. Mason brought with him extensive expertise, having created BASH amplifier technology during his stint at Blade Technologies in the early 90s, worked with the rigors of pro-audio speakers and subs with Adamson System Engineering as well a 12-year tour of duty designing for PSB. It was a potentially perfect mesh of team and evolutionary direction. SVS handed the talented designer a major challenge, a new line of loudspeakers targeted at specific next-tier price points with a blank slate. Once the acoustic design was set, team SVS swung into collaborative action. The result? The Ultra series. Reviewed here is the flagship Ultra Tower.

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Before a model is ever constructed, drivers and cabinets are theoretically designed by our acoustic engineers using the most sophisticated computer-aided design (CAD) processes available. Then prototypes are carefully measured and optimized in an anechoic environment to achieve pitch-perfect frequency response. After the ideal theoretical frequency response is attained, exhaustive listening and measurement is done in listening rooms calibrated to closely resemble typical home-like room environments. Fair review. I think I'm going to take SVS up on the 45 day audition. Also read your glowing review of the NAD T 757 and am wondering how you think the Ultras would pair with the NAD. Currently have a Denon 2310ci and see you say, "While Onkyo and Denon may make more AV receivers than the before-mentioned Our top choice for best floor standing speaker available today. It's on the pricier end, but has a sleek design and promises powerful sound clarity. Elevating high frequency performance, the Ultra Tower speaker’s aluminum dome tweeter is stunningly transparent and pinpoint accurate. Light, efficient, rigid and impervious to distortion, even at high sound pressure levels, the tweeter’s airy’ presentation of female vocals and effortlessly unveiled highs reveal as much or more than the finest loudspeakers in the world. The FEA-optimized diffuser ensures broad dispersion for an incredibly wide and convincing soundstage with perfect on- and off-axis frequency response so everyone in your room experiences the same pristine clarity and imaging. Innovative SoundMatch Crossover Design You get a lot of speaker for your money, but there are more rounded, better executed speakers out there at this price.

well i wanna know BTW the Aperion Grand Verus and this Ultra towers, what have better sound quality overall? ultra are better for movies compared with the aperion or for music? the High end it's better with the aperion or with the ultras? The height speaker channels should be placed in the upper left/right corners of the front stage. Typically, this will be 40-45 degrees off-axis and about 8 feet in height. A downward tilt of the speaker will improve mid/high frequency response and reduce ceiling bounce reflections. I realize the 806 is not the same speaker you are investigating, but I would expect it to measure similarly. To me, the Focals measure "better" than the SVS speakers, at least at Canada's National Research Centre.Clearly, SVS believes it has designed a speaker that shatters previous attempts at redefining the price-to-performance barrier. We just had to find out for ourselves whether or not that was true. Here’s what we found. Out of the box Standing toe-to-toe with the finest speakers in the world, the flagship SVS Ultra Tower is a reference floorstanding speaker built without compromise for the most discerning audio fans. Dual opposing 8-inch woofers command a room with deep, articulate bass while the innovative driver design, premium materials and optimized cabinet geometry combine to convey incredible resolution, absolute transparency, and crisp, powerful dynamics. Frequency: This determines a speaker's range when it comes to sound, helping identify how well it handles highs and lows. When searching for the best floor-standing speaker, look for a wider frequency range so that your speaker can better replicate a variety of different sounds. What we did like were the various options included for feet. That’s not always a given with floorstanding speakers; more expensive models we’ve reviewed, like the MarkAudio-SOTA Cesti T ( full review here), don’t always have them. These included two sets per speaker of different-length isolation spikes, intended to not only elevate the speaker off the floor and reduce unwanted vibrations, but allow you to level the speaker off if, for some reason, your floor is tilted. While we never use this particular feature, the feet themselves were easy to attach and remove, as long as you don’t mind lowering the speaker onto its side. We couldn’t detect a huge difference in sound between when they were on and when they were off, but we weren’t too concerned about this. The main speakers should be placed 25-30 degrees off-axis, relative to the primary seating position. The best imaging will be obtained when the tweeters are close to ear height when seated. Most tower speakers accomplish this naturally, and a bookshelf monitor will require stands.

The Ultra Tower speakers are a perfectly tuned acoustic ecosystem. From the drivers to the crossover and cabinet, each component is painstakingly engineered and critically tested to perform in harmony and convey breathtaking sound quality. Ultra Driver & Tweeter Design The Ultra Towers treble response is perhaps its most distinctive sonic attribute. The aluminum dome tweeters don’t sound overtly metallic, per se, but they are poignant in their delivery of transients and other fine details. We found brass and string instruments were reproduced with just a little added zing, though we never found the speakers to be fatiguing in any way. Hard-core audiophiles will want to sample the Ultra Towers before making a final decision on whether the flavor suits their palettes, but movie fans haven’t got a thing to worry about. The towers’ execution of high frequencies served to add excitement to every movie scene we watched and, again, at no time did we ever feel like we needed to turn our system down – distortion was never a problem, so long as adequate power was delivered. The result is a speaker that measures well with near flawless real-world frequency response, but also optimized to sound amazing on a human level through listening tests with real music and cinematic content, in a real world listening environment like your home. Since premium drivers require an equally capable crossover, no expense was spared with the intelligent SVS SoundMatch 3.5-way crossover. Its tapered array is designed so only the top midrange driver crosses over to the tweeter, while the bottom midrange is crossed over to the woofers to minimize the potential for beaming. This creates an expansive, yet focused and precise soundstage, with accurate frequency response and imaging at all listening positions in the room. The precise tuning of the SoundMatch Crossover also ensures pinpoint accuracy from sparkling highs down to subterranean lows, while maintaining pristine signal purity. Aluminum shorting ring to reduce gap inductance, lower distortion, and enhance high frequency responseSVS stands behind the Ultra Tower with a five-year warranty against defects in parts and workmanship, as well as a 45-day in-home trial period.