New Products

SVS, the Ohio-based company best known for its subwoofers and ever-expanding line of high value home theater speakers and accessories, today announced the launch of the Ultra Evolution Series it previewed at CES 2024.

Hailed as the brand’s pièce de résistance, the mix-and-match lineup replaces the popular Ultra Series and is the largest and most significant product launch in its brand’s 26-year history, highlighted for delivering reference-level sound at prices that are less than what is typically expected in the higher echelons of audio.

The Ultra Evolution Series comprises three striking towers, two bookshelf speakers, a height effects speaker, and a center-channel model at prices ranging from $800 for the center speaker and $900/pair for the smaller of two bookshelf speakers to $5,000/pair for the flagship Ultra Evolution Pinnacle. (An overview of each model is provided later in this post.) In addition to being timbre-matched to one another, all of the new models are voiced to match models in SVS’s Prime and Ultra lineups, allowing system builders to expand and reconfigure existing home theater and stereo setups.

“This is the culmination of SVS’s journey, at least so far,” SVS president Gary Yacoubian told us when the series was unveiled in January at CES. “It is our largest product launch ever. It’s also our most momentous product launch where we’re really knocking on the door, we think, of some of the best speakers in the world. And we’re doing it in price ranges where that hasn’t been done before. There’s a lot of really exciting technologies here.”

New Technologies Abound

Those technologies start with a new vapor-misted, diamond-coated aluminum-dome tweeter that Yacoubian calls “the best tweeter we’ve ever worked with — our brand or any other.”

A breakthrough in material science made it possible to use a process known as vapor deposition to “grow” a layer of diamond carbon on the surface of a 1-inch aluminum dome to improve rigidity and critical acoustic properties, including the ability to play lower for more seamless blending with the midrange. “The breakup frequency is way beyond audibility,” Yacoubian explained at CES, “so it’s effortless, airy, detailed but never in your face. It’s a groundbreaking driver for us.”

The tweeter is protected by a lattice/diffuser with a semi-random pattern, created using FEA analysis and chosen for its “optimized off-axis frequency response and dispersion characteristics.”

Another SVS achievement is impossible to miss: The arching, time-aligned baffle that defines the look of the Ultra Evolution floorstanding models and, to a lesser degree, the bookshelf models. In the towers, the baffle’s curvature is carefully calculated so the acoustically centered tweeter is recessed and the midrange driver/woofer combo above and below angle outward, maximizing phase coherence and enhancing imaging and soundstaging.

“The benefit is that, spatially, we essentially have a point-source,” Yacoubian explained. “So you’re getting the sound coming from a single point in space, for the most part, and then because it’s time-aligned we’re also getting the sound of each driver to the listener at the exact same instant in time. This creates a very convincing, believable sound stage and also a very fine rendering of the content.”

The Ultra Evolution tower speakers also boast a powerful new woofer configuration that deploys dual-opposing active woofers in the top and bottom of the cabinet, each in a force-balanced array similar to the design used in SVS’s 3000 Micro subwoofer, which uses dual opposing 8-inch drivers that fire from the sides of the cabinet to achieve deep, robust bass from an enclosure that’s less than a foot square.

Here’s how SVS describes the benefit of this arrangement: “By having eight woofers from a pair of speakers, all firing in unison in different directions, deep, authoritative bass fills the listening area, smoothing out peaks and nulls. Mechanical energy from each front-firing woofer is equaled inside the cabinet by the rear-firing woofer, thus eliminating mechanical coloration. This results in pure, accurate low frequencies at any playback level.”

Apart from its diamond-coated aluminum-dome tweeter, all models in the Ultra Evolution lineup share other common features, including chamfered baffles to minimize edge diffraction and optimize off-axis response, speaker grilles that attach magnetically for easy removal, crossovers made of topnotch components, and gold-plated binding posts.

Woofers and midrange drivers across the line are made with precision-cast aluminum-alloy baskets that support glass-fiber composite cones, chosen for "superb stiffness-to-mass ratio and the ability to convey stunning dynamics and pinpoint tonal accuracy.” Each midrange resides in its own acoustically tuned chamber to enhance separation and eliminate cabinet resonances.

Speaker by Speaker

Here’s an overview of each model. Models are currently available unless otherwise noted.

Ultra Evolution Pinnacle. A three-way floorstanding speaker ($5,000/pair) featuring four 8-inch woofers, two 5.25-inch midrange drivers, and SVS’s new signature tweeter (described earlier) in a 50-inch-tall cabinet with elastomer bumper feet and metal spike feet attachments (common to all tower models). The speaker is rated to play down to 24 Hz (±3 dB).

Ultra Evolution Titan. A slightly smaller three-way floorstander ($4,000/pair) featuring four 6.5-inch woofers, two 4.5-inch midrange drivers, and the signature tweeter in a 47-inch-tall cabinet. Its low-frequency limit is rated at 27 Hz (±3 dB).

Ultra Evolution Tower. Also a three-way floorstanding speaker ($3,000/pair), the Tower is the smallest of the three floorstanding models at just over 44 inches tall and has the same driver configuration, except with two 4.5-inch midrange drivers and four 5.25-inch woofers. The speaker is rated down to 30 Hz (±3 dB) and is slated to ship in late May.

Ultra Evolution Bookshelf (shown here): The larger of two, two-way bookshelf speakers ($2,000/pair), it features a 6.5-inch woofer in a 15-inch-tall cabinet and is rated down to 40 Hz (±3 dB).

Ultra Evolution Nano: A two-way bookshelf speaker ($900/pair) rated down to 44 Hz (±3 dB) and featuring a 5.25-inch woofer in a cabinet that stands just over a foot tall. The speaker is slated to ship in late May.

Ultra Evolution Center: A three-way center-channel speaker ($800) featuring a stacked tweeter/4.5-inch midrange complement flanked by a 6.5-inch woofer on either side in a cabinet 22 inches wide. The speaker has a rated low-frequency limit of 40 Hz (±3 dB).

Ultra Elevation (shown below): A versatile height/surround speaker ($900/pair) that comes with a multi-angle wall/ceiling mounting bracket. An upgrade to SVS’s popular Prime Elevation speaker, the Ultra Elevation features an angled front baffle and mates a 5.25-inch woofer with the signature tweeter in a cabinet just over 12 inches tall. The speaker is rated down to 44 Hz (±3 dB).

Finish options will be limited initially for some Ultra Evolution models but all models will soon be offered in gloss black, gloss white, or black oak wood veneer.

Like all SVS products, the new Ultra Evolution speakers are backed by a five-year unconditional warranty and include 60-day guaranteed price protection with automatic refunds, free shipping, a 45-day in-home trial, lifetime support, and eligibility to earn SoundPoints toward future SVS purchases under the company’s rewards program.

For more information on the Ultra Evolution series, visit svsound.com.

---

SVS Video Interview from CES 2024