SVS Ultra Bookshelf Speakers Review

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Introduction

SVS is known for their legendary subwoofer performance, quite often leading the industry in the performance per dollar equation.  However, when they announced their Ultra Series of speakers with claims of high fidelity and value, I was a bit skeptical.  This was especially the case since past speaker offerings from SVS failed to impress me.  Thus I just had to get my hands on the new Ultra Series Bookshelf speakers to see if they were the real deal or not, especially after hearing Marshall sing his praises about their Ultra Towers.  So do they live up to the SVS name? 

Read on to find out and also check out our impressions via our YouTube Video Review.

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Youtube Video Review

Design Overview

The SVS Ultra bookshelf speaker is a two-way, rear ported speaker with a 6.5” glass fiber cone and 1” aluminum dome tweeter.  In reality the woofer cone material is nothing more than treated paper upon closer inspection but glass fiber sounds more interesting so I’ll give it to them.  The woofer has a nice cast basket frame, substantial motor structure and a vented former to help reduce turbulence at the gap and also provide some degree of cooling for the voice coil.  The 1” aluminum dome tweeter features a ferrite motor structure, a plastic phase plug to reduce high frequency break-up mode, and a metal screen to protect it from curious children with prying hands.  The crossover is a 2-way, 2nd order electrically symmetric HP and LP featuring an air core inductor and poly capacitor on the tweeter circuit and rugged iron core choke on the woofer.  The metalized padding resistor on the tweeter is on its own standoff to improve heat dissipation.  This is a little detail often forgotten by lesser designed products.  The cores are all orthogonally oriented to reduce crosstalk coupling and the speaker wires are encased in foam padding to eliminate mechanical buzz in the cabinet. 

SVS Ultra Drivers

SVS Ultra Internal View

The cabinet is constructed of ¾” MDF instead of the standard 5/8”, with a full 1” thick front baffle where rigidity is needed most, especially since both drivers are countersunk and flush mounted into the baffle to reduce diffraction.  The cabinet is further stiffened with a generously sized brace that is firmly affixed to all surfaces instead of the cheap stick style bracing often found on less costly speaker systems.  The cabinet is generously stuffed with insulation and I actually had to remove some of it to get a peek of the crossover.  The outer surfaces are radiused to reduce diffraction and the grille is constructed of thick MDF instead of cheap flimsy plastic.  This provided excellent rigidity and allowed for the grille to be tightly fit onto the frame to reduce losses.

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Back View

The SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers come standard as bi-ampable or bi-wireable, a feature many competitors either lack or charge a premium for. We chose to single amp the speakers for our listening tests.

SVS utilized the National Research Council (NRC) anechoic chamber in Canada to measure and test the Ultra speakers in addition to voice tuning it in real rooms.  This speaker has all of the right parts to make for a good quality design with solid engineering principles to back it up. 

The SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers come in three finish options {black oak veneer, white or gloss black} and all finishes are real veneer, not vinyl wrap.  SVS doesn’t up charge for any of these finishes.  Ours came in gloss black which looks exquisite and I highly recommend choosing this finish.

Let’s take a listen to see if they live up to the hype.

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Sound Quality Tests and Conclusion

I tested the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers in my 6,000ft^3 Audioholics Showcase theater room utilizing our reference gear such as the Marantz PM-11S3 integrated amplifier, Emotiva XPR-1 mono-bloc amplifier, Marantz TT-15S1 turntable and Oppo BDP-105 Universal Blu-ray player.  Speaker cables were Kimber 8TC and I utilized Bluejeans 1694A interconnects.  The speakers were placed on my 30” sand filled Plateau stands.  I found a moderate amount of toe-in was needed to get the best imaging while still preserving the lateral soundstage.

The SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers produced excellent clarity and tonal balance.  They treble never sounded harsh or too forward.  The bass didn’t extend down too low like some bookshelf speakers try to achieve, typically with negative consequences at higher output levels.  The Ultras played clean down to the 50Hz region without woofer distress or bottoming even at spirited levels.  The vocals had better purity and articulation than I expected; especially female voices like the great Christina Aguilera in “A Song for You” with Herbie Hancock tickling the ivories.  The Ultras showed off their depth of soundstage and imaging that sounded, dare I say, 3D like.

SACD: Patricia Barber - Café Blue

Listening to Patricia Barber Café Blue on SACD was a real treat on the Ultra speakers.  Track #1 “What a Shame” showed off the excellent Ultra tweeter’s ability to be airy and spacious.  The piano in track #2 “Morning Grace” sounded rich and vibrant and extended beyond the plane of the speakers while Barber’s voice was reproduced with excellent neutrality. The reverb of this close-miked recording came through with the authenticity I’d expect from a high performance speaker system.

Patricia Barber Café Blue SACD (left pic); Sade Stronger than Pride 180G LP (right pic)

Bass was well extended and clean, though a powered sub thrown in the mix would have taken it up a notch.  I found the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers have a very similar tonal balance to my $3k/pr Status Acoustics Decimo speakers, which is a very good thing.  However, I did feel the SVS’s sounded a bit fuller in the upper midbass region which at times may have been on the side of overemphasis.  Crossing these speakers over at 80Hz to a sub, perhaps an SB13-Ultra would mitigate this issue and provide you full-range sound rivaling most high dollar tower speaker systems from SVS’s competitors.

LP: Sade – Love is Stronger Than Pride (180G)

Buy it Now!

I was fortunate to score myself a copy of this incredibly well produced record from Sade on 180G vinyl from Audio Fidelity.  In fact my copy is marked #0194, so it’s a limited pressing to be sure.  Track #1 “Love is Stronger Than Pride” again showed off how airy the tweeter was on the Ultra bookshelf speaker.  They projected a soundstage larger than their size suggests and were also able to reproduce the delicate plucking sounds of the acoustical guitar.  Track #2 “Paradise” reaffirmed the Ultras were able to play at high volume without woofer distress.  I did detect a slight mid bass emphasis but feel this would be pleasing to most listeners.  Vocals were still rendered with excellent clarity and the Ultra’s just begged to be played louder.

Measurements and Analysis

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Listening Window Response – 1 meter in-room summed with GP

I measured the SVS Ultra bookshelf at 1 meter in-room on-axis, +-30 deg off-axis horizontal and +- 15 deg vertical off-axis to derive the listening window response.  The curve was then spliced with a groundplane measurement at 500Hz to eliminate room effects below the transition frequency.  Port contribution was not fully captured but I estimate the -3dB pt to be around 50Hz based on this measurement and the impedance measurement.  I confirmed SVS’s sensitivity rating of 87dB was accurate and the speaker measured very linearly throughout the entire audio bandwidth which explained why it sounded mostly neutral in our listening tests.

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Impedance and Phase

The Ultras are rated at 8 ohms but in reality they are 4 ohm speakers.  There is no hiding this fact.  I suspect SVS rated them 8 ohms for marketing purposes and because of their high sensitivity making them an easy load to drive.  Notice how both speakers track very well in this measurement indicating parts tolerances are very tight. 

Conclusion

Based on our listening tests and objective analysis, the Ultra Bookshelf speakers live up to the SVS badge.  There is so much to like about these speakers and so little to complain about.  They offer a very balanced sound, with great dynamic capabilities.  They look as good as they sound.  No cheap parts were used to skimp or cut corners and they proved the sum of the parts really does matter in making excellent loudspeakers.  They apply NRC science, not to cheapen the product, but to improve its measured performance and subjective sound experience.  If you’re looking for a high performance, attractive bookshelf speaker that can truly deliver on that “better than being there” experience for around $1k/pair, then you owe it to yourself to try these out risk free for 45 days.  I believe the SVS Ultras are among the best value in high performance bookshelf speakers and I think you may agree if you give them a try.

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Speakers Review
SVSound
MSRP: $998/pr

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Performance
Value