SVS Ultra Evolution Speaker Series Overview

This article is about a new series of speakers from SVS called their Ultra Evolution line. We are big fans of SVS at Audio Advice, and this new series is by far their best ever. It seems destined to shake things up in the speaker world. The 3 new tower models are the ones getting the most attention. They have a striking and technology-filled cabinet design, a bold new way of using woofers in tower speakers, and a brand-new tweeter. In the short time they have been presented at electronics shows, they have garnered more praise than we have ever seen for a new speaker. SVS has also updated the complementary bookshelf, center, and on-wall height speaker to match up perfectly with these astounding new towers. In this article, we will review everything that makes these so special and guide you on which ones might work best in your environment. 

SVS is based in Ohio and has an overarching company goal of providing sound that will surprise and delight anyone who wants great sound but doesn’t have the means to buy the most expensive equipment available. This mantra has led to astounding success and helped develop one of the most loyal customer followings in the home audio industry.

Today’s overview is on the Ultra Evolution series, which consists of seven different models. We will first discuss what they have in common, then discuss each individual model in detail. Hopefully, we can provide some good insight as to which models might work best for your music or home theater system.

Technology Shared By All SVS Ultra Evolution Series Loudspeakers

Diamond Coated Aluminum Dome Tweeter

All the new Ultra Evolution speakers use a new tweeter for SVS, which uses a diamond-coated aluminum dome tweeter. SVS coats the surface of the dome with industrial diamond dust using a process called Vapor Deposition. The new tweeter can go far beyond human hearing in frequency, and the coating raises its breakup point way out of the audio range, meaning they are essentially distortion-free. The coating also lowers its response a bit, making the blend better to the midrange drivers. Another pretty cool thing is their organic cell lattice tweeter diffuser. You certainly want to protect an expensive diamond tweeter from prying fingers, which the diffuser does, but it also improves the off-axis response, giving you a slightly bigger sweet spot. 

With all of the speakers sharing this exact same tweeter and the same materials for the various drivers used in the different models, you get perfect acoustic matching when you are putting together a home theater system, too.

Time Aligned Drivers

All of the models except the Ultra Elevation have been changed to align the drivers and the way SVS did this is super cool. If you look at speaker drivers, the source for the sound from a tweeter is the dome itself, but for woofers and midrange drivers, it's at the back face of the cone material. The cabinets on the new speakers are all angled to align the drivers. The two bookshelf speakers look pretty neat with this angled cabinet, but we have to say, the towers, where three drivers are aligned, just look incredible. SVS calls this their Acoustically Centered Time Alignment Cabinet Architecture. The look of the towers actually reminds us of the similar look of an ultra-high-end speaker from another brand that is one of the most expensive speakers in the world. It is really amazing to see this technology at the price points of these new models.

Tank Like High-End Cabinet Construction

The high-tech cabinet design would fall apart if the cabinets themselves were not made to reduce resonances. SVS uses an anechoic chamber in the design process as they test the prototypes for the best cabinet bracing. These cabinets are built extremely well, with all of them even having a separate enclosure for each midrange, and the three-way designs have the woofers separated as well. In what is a more expensive but proven method to remove cabinet resonance, they also mount the drivers on a thicker piece of MDF on the front. This 1” thick piece is also chamfered on the sides to reduce diffraction. And if you simply just pick one up, you’ll instantly know they are tanks! Heck, even the bookshelf, which is not super large, weighs almost 20 pounds.

High-Quality Crossover Components

Just like the cabinet's internal workings, you really can not see the very important crossover. For those of you just getting into this, the crossover is the part of the speaker that directs the audio traffic. Each driver is made to handle a certain range of frequencies and the crossover, in simple terms, takes the incoming full-range signal and splits it up between the different drivers. 

You can accomplish this with very inexpensive parts, but your audio performance will be vastly compromised. SVS uses heavy-trace printed circuit boards, very high-grade capacitors, and air-core inductors in their crossovers. While some speaker vendors spend as little as possible on the crossover since you never see it, SVS builds it like something you would find in a $10,000+ speaker, which is just super impressive!

Premium Cabinets Finishes

All Ultra Evolution models have three great finish options. You can opt for a painted and more matte appearance in the black oak or get a high gloss black or white finish. The quality of these finishes is first-class, and it is nice to see the addition of the white option for more contemporary environments. However, we do have a pretty strong opinion on gloss speakers from any brand when it comes to home theater systems. Gloss paint is like a mirror, and it's a bit distracting to see your movie image reflecting off your center channel or left and right speakers if they are also close to your screen. Just think about that as you are considering the options.

Now, let's take a look at each of these new models and go over their details, and we will start from the top!

Ultra Evolution Tower Models

The new towers are the models catching all of the attention and deservedly so! With their striking acoustic alignment design and thundering fast and deep bass capabilities, most people who hear them think there must be a subwoofer on, and they must cost 2-3 times what they actually sell for. As you can see, the cabinets are laid out to time-align all of the drivers, which results in a very high-tech and cool look. 

All three, the Ultra Evolution Pinnacle, Titan, and Tower, use a push-pull woofer system where you have identical woofers on the front and rear of the cabinet in a force-balanced array. There is a pair on the top and the bottom. This method, which we have seen in some subwoofers, has a couple of neat advantages especially when you have them at different heights. You have far less room nodes with this tech, which means you should get very even bass across your entire listening area. 

The opposing woofers also cancel out internal resonances, which quietens the cabinet even more. This improves not only the low frequencies but also the entire frequency range.

Now, the only catch to this is something common with most good tower speakers. You will get the best performance if you can have them away from the rear wall, and it would be even better if they were a bit away from your side walls, too.

All three also have dual midrange drivers mounted above and below the single-centered tweeter. These are each in their own dedicated enclosure, as is the tweeter itself. This layout makes our ears perceive this more like a point source and they do have incredible imaging. 

The midrange drivers are just as special as the diamond tweeters. They are all made of glass fiber composite material with excellent pistonic characteristics. Their baskets are not some cheap stamped material but cast from an aluminum alloy. The vented Kapton voice coil is very lightweight, which improves dynamics and speed. 

We also like the adjustable feet, which have two options for a nonmarring elastomer or spikes with cups. They also all have solid bi-wire speaker connections.

Ultra Evolution Pinnacle

And as with any speaker that pays such close attention to time alignment, you will want to spend some time finding the right spot and then making sure to use a tape measure to confirm each speaker is identical in toe in and distance from your chair. If you do all this, you will be rewarded with incredible sound. From heavy metal to light jazz, to full orchestral music, the Pinnacle handles it all with ease, and with a good power amp does it so effortlessly!

Ultra Evolution Titan

Ultra Evolution Tower

Ultra Evolution Bookshelf Models

There are two bookshelf units in this new lineup, called appropriately the Bookshelf and Nano for the smaller one. These have the same unique design as the towers with the angled cabinet to give you that great acoustic center time alignment, and it adds a pretty neat look to them too!

Ultra Evolution Bookshelf

Ultra Evolution Nano

Ultra Evolution Home Theater Finishing Touches

Ultra Elevation

Ultra Evolution Center

We’re here to help!

We hope this brief overview has given you some ideas on which SVS Ultra Evolution speakers might be best for your system. After playing around with them in our listening lab, we agree with all of the great press they have already gotten. These are one heck of a good value.

If you have further questions, contact our experts via chat, phone, or email. Or simply visit one of our world-class showrooms to experience speakers, projectors, TVs, and everything in between for yourself before you make a purchase! 

If you’re planning your home theater or media room, check out our Home Theater Design page, where we have everything Home Theater related, including our FREE Home Theater Design Tool.

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