Customer Reviews: Ultra Tower

The first few days of listening to my new Ultra Towers were a problem: I didn't want to go to work in the morning, and I didn't want to go to bed at night! It was delightful hearing familiar music on them. I listen to all kinds of music - rock, folk, classical, jazz - and they perform beautifully with all of them. Acoustic instruments are a sweet spot (sometimes they are recorded better), but electric music sounds great, too. A tremendous value, these generate excellent reproduction across the spectrum, and impressive clean VOLUME.

I've had my SVS Ultra Towers for several weeks now in a media room setup that also includes the Ultra Center and SB13-Ultra Subwoofer. These speakers are amazing and a great value for the price. First the cabinets are beautifully finished and create a great appearance with the other equipment. We primarily watch blu-ray movies and listen to music in this room. Across a range of source material these speakers just plain deliver effortless sound. I've yet to sense any strain with multi channel material. Dropping out the sub on 2 channel direct material allows the (4) 8-inch bass drivers to come alive and really fill the room with rich, enveloping sound. The side firing/opposed design works well and with the possible exception of the very lowest registers - are fully cabable w/o the sub. There is serious bass capabilities in these towers. Combining the Ultra Towers with the SB13-Ultra Sub - means you will likely never reach the limits/stress the system at movie theater volume levels.

The technical support (questions about my specific setup) and the purchase experience are top-notch. Well packed - not a scratch on them. Had them setup and running within 30 min of arrival. They are heavy and 2 people are recommended to move a tower upstairs - just speaks the internal construction of the cabinets.

It's great to be able to buy a premium product these days and get a completely satisfying buying experience on all parameters. SVS wins - I expect to be a customer for life.

Here is my review of the new Ultra Towers.
I decided to upgrade my 2.0 system in my basement, replacing my 20 year old Infinity speakers. The system is mostly for music listening, although there is a TV down there. Primary movie watching is done in our family room on a 5.1 system. The electronics consisted of a Harman Kardon HK3490 stereo receiver (120wpc), a Sony BDP-s590 player, and an APC H10 power conditioner.
I did quite a bit of research leading up to my purchase of the Ultras. My price range was $2,000-3,000 for the pair. Models I considered included Salk Songtowers(with Raal tweeter), Aperion Versus Grand, Ascend Sierra towers(also with Raal tweeter), Kef R500, Tannoy Precision 6.2, Paradigm Studio 60 or 100, Goldenear Triton 2s and 3s, PSB Imagine T towers, Martin Logan ESL, Gallo Classico CL-3s or CL-4s, Tekton Lore-S or Pendragon, Philharmonic Audio 2, and Von Schweikert VR-22s. After many local auditions and listening to some at RMAF 2012, I narrowed the field to SVS, Philharmonic Audio, Ascend and Von Schweikert. My initial attempt was to compare all 4 at once, but due to circumstances out of my control, I ended up comparing just the Ultras to the Philharmonic 2s. I will try to focus on the Ultras mostly for this review, just mentioning key differences with other brands when applicable.
First off, how did SVS do as a company? Excellent, which is not a surprise at all. I met Mark Mason and Gary Yacoubian at RMAF and they were both gracious hosts and answered all my questions. Both of them, plus Ed Mullen, were quick to respond to any and all of my emails. Random calls to SVS for questions were always answered by someone who was pleasant and knowledgeable. Originally, the estimated ship date was late November/December. That did get pushed back, but when they set a firm ship date of January 18, they nailed it exactly. In fact, my pair shipped on the 18th.
They arrived on a pallet. The boxes are huge and sturdy. They are excellently packed and bagged, and both arrived intact. Unpacking was not too bad, once I figured out to open the side, then stand the box up and slide out the speaker. Port plugs and a letter (mine is one of the first 100 pairs) arrived in a separate box. (I wish they had included a pen, like they did when I bought my PB10-NSD. It was a cool touch).
As far as looks, impressions are always subjective, but they are really cool looking speakers. They are tall and very heavy, consistent with strong bracing. The drivers are great looking with gunmetal colored rims (less shiny than the demo pair at RMAF, which I think was a smart choice on the part of SVS). The glossy black finish is very nice and reflective. It is maybe not quite as beautiful as some of the finishes I saw at RMAF, but the nicer finishes were on much more expensive speakers. There were no defects in the finish at all. The dual binding posts are sturdy and easy to use.
My only complaint about the looks/design is the front grill (the side firing woofers have non-removable grills). I wish that the grill attached with magnets instead of plastic knobs. This is for 2 reasons. First, with the grill off the front would be unblemished without the 4 holes for the grill (like the Kef R series). Second, the grill would sit totally flush with the surface when mounted, and thus would fit better with the styling.

Now, on to the sound. I did allow about 50 hours of break in when they first arrived. I demoed many, many tracks when listening to the two contenders. Mostly rock, acoustic guitars, jazz, drums, and classical. Some artists I listened to were Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, U2, Rush, Live, Def Leppard, Metallica, Vivaldi, Copland, Beethoven, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sarah McLachlan, Nora Jones, Diana Krall, Marcus Miller, etc.
Some of the ways I would describe the sound of the Ultra Towers are smooth, rich, warm, dynamic, room filling presence, deep and powerful bass, excellent male vocals, non-fatiguing, and fun. Of all the sets that I actually was able to listen to, they by far had the best bass (with the exception of the Goldenear Tritons, due to their built in subs, which were similar). These are truly full range speakers and really do not need a sub except for the lowest of frequencies for movie watching. Their impressive bass was not just apparent at the very low end, but all of the mid to low frequency sounds are superb. Bass guitar, kick drums, tom-toms, male vocals, percussions…all of those were out of this world. Female vocals also sounded great. The high end sound is not harsh at all (despite what some people warned me about regarding metal dome tweeters). Highs are clear and detailed. Now, in comparison to the highs on the Philharmonic 2s, which use a Raal ribbon tweeter, the SVS towers were slightly less detailed and, with certain sounds like acoustic guitars, just a touch less natural/neutral.
The soundstage on the Ultras is very good, extending outside the width of the towers. The Phils were a bit better in this regard also, likely due to their open back design. But, the Ultras are no slouch. Imaging is very good too. The towers sound clear at low and high volumes. I experimented with multiple positions and ended up with toe in with the drivers seeming to cross just behind the listening position.
The Ultras sound great on all genres, but especially on rock and jazz due to their excellent low end. Songs that have mostly piano and acoustic guitars sound fine too, but those play better to the strengths of the Philharmonics. Classical is a tossup. Big, bombastic symphony pieces were better on the Ultras while quieter quartets and the like were better on the Philharmonics.
So in conclusion, the Ultra Towers, at least in my less than professional opinion, are a great set of speakers that are versatile, well built, truly full range, and with no real severe weaknesses. If you are a severely critical listener who favors mellow, acoustic music, you may notice some slight flaws at the high end, but otherwise I would highly recommend these. They are also a great value, due to their price at $2,000 which includes shipping and the gloss finish. For example, the speakers with ribbons like the Salks or Ascends that might beat the Ultra at high frequencies run around $2,700 (possibly more for a high gloss finish), and both would need a good subwoofer to match the full range sound of the Ultras.

I just received a pair of the Ultra Towers yesterday (1-22-13) and my initial reactions are summed up in two words "very impressed!" Admittedly I have only been able to spend a small amount of time listening so far, but I must say that the kick drum in the live version of the Eagles' "Hotel California" was extremely powerful and deep, along with the clear vocals and wide and deep sound staging. Similar bass impact and clarity was also heard and felt on Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" track. Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", and E. Power Biggs' rendering of Bach's "Tocata and Fugue in D-Minor" (a Phantom of the Opera pipe organ classic test) proved that even the deepest (almost) registers are captured with the speakers' woofer set-up, while maintaining a tightness that many full range and even subwoofers have a hard time not muddying. Another characteristic that impressed me was how well these speakers are able to maintain the individual sound characteristics of each instrument, whether in classical pieces, such as the Alexander Quartet's performance of "Beethoven String Quartets", or cuts from the Time For Three's "Frequent Traveler" CD. Jazz was equally enjoyable and rich, such as the Dave Brubeck Quartet's classic "Take 5" from a reissue of the "Time Out" album (CD).I could go on, but I also want to mention that my motivation for purchasing these full range speakers is as an alternative to my present / previous satellite (B&W Nautilus 805) plus sub (recently defunct / blown amp) Velodyne HGS12) set up. I feel that the Ultra Towers match or exceed the clarity and soundstaging of the mids and and highs provided by the 805s, and have somewhat tighter (although not quite as deep) base as the sub. The Ultra Towers 3.5-way crossover design definitely provide a more uniform and transparent transition from deep bass through mids and up to the very top end frequencies than any of the several different satellite - sub set ups that I have owned in the past, and still own now. My initial concerns regarding power requirements / low sensitivity have also been allayed, as my 150 WPC Musical Fidelity integrated amp is able to drive the towers to sound levels higher than I ever feel comfortable listening to. Highly recommended, especially at this price! After a couple of more days of listening, fine tuning the speaker placement in my room, and enjoying more jazz from Warren Bernhardt's "Heat of the Moment" CD, then Miles Davis "Kind of Blue", and topping it off with a change of pace to some high decibel "Never Been Any Reason" by Head East, I have to raise my previous 4-star rating to 5 stars! RAL

Customer Reviews: Ultra Tower Surround Package

I recently received my SVS Ultra Towers and Centers. To test them out I first played a series of CDs through the Towers only and was very pleased by what I considered their core strengths including an overall neutrality across the sound spectrum, a strong ability to reproduce voices, crispness with stringed and percussion instruments, strong stereo imaging, and absolute clarity/tightness of the bass. Overall, I felt the Ultras “hit the mark” I was looking for in a new set of tower speakers as well as or better than any other towers I had heard to date in my current speaker-shopping effort (and at a significantly lower cost point than my other favorites).

I then hooked up all five speakers, plugged in my sub, and sampled some of my favorite Blu-Rays to hear how the speakers would perform with a cross-section of 5.1 music passages, various “motion effects”, and the proverbial “stuff blowing up”. Once again, I was very happy with the sound the overall speaker system achieved in that all the audio was tight, accurate, and vibrant – without being so in-your-face as to become annoying. In short, the speakers allowed me to meet my home theater goal of being “in the movie” via an effective balance of pristinely reproduced dialogue, accurate special effects, and truly “musical” background music.

In short, and at least for me, I would rate the Ultra speakers as “very highly recommended” and will be keeping them to upgrade my audio/home theatre set-up. Thanks SVS for the nice job with these.