It wasn’t that many years ago that SVS was a forum-promoted, somewhat small subwoofer company with a solid cult following in the DIY-enthusiast home theater market. Today, SVS is an entirely different entity that dominates the subwoofer market and has been able to do the impossible, which is to get into the beyond-competitive audiophile loudspeaker business – and do it well. As always, value is at the core of their message, but the company realized that, for their best speakers, and without the clichéd price increases that we see everywhere else in the hobby, they could make a vastly upgraded loudspeaker. And that is what we have here in the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeaker. This is a radically new and upgraded floorstanding loudspeaker that breaks out of the traditional SVS mold and begs to be taken seriously in the audiophile world.
The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers are $5,000 per pair, which are bigger than you get with some audiophile speakers costing many, many times the money. They are just under 100 pounds each out of the box, and over 50 inches tall, 12 inches wide and 18 inches deep, thus some pretty large speakers overall. The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers pack a newly-designed tweeter, 5.25-inch mids, and multiple punchy-deep eight-inch bass drivers, as well as rear ports/drivers. The reported low-frequency -3dB is 24 Hz which is ironic in that, when set up nicely, the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers don’t really “need” a subwoofer, which is how SVS built their empire. The killer-looking, time-aligned driver cabinet design is somewhat reminiscent of the old Wilson Audio Grand SLAMM audiophile loudspeakers, which were $65,000 per pair back in their day. Honda decided in the early 1990s that they wanted to show Ferrari just how much better (and less expensive) they could make a super car when they released the Acura NSX. This feels like a similar moment for SVS now in 2024. Can the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers hang with speakers costing $20,000, $30,000 per pair? Who is even crazy enough to think this up, let alone test it? That would be me …
What Makes the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Speakers Special?
- Let’s start with the design, which is a significant departure from the last top–of-the-line speaker from SVS, including new drivers and a new time-aligned driver complement. These speakers look like they cost much more than they really do at first glance and that’s long before you hit “play” on your first song.
- The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers deliver a lot of sound output, including a lot of low bass. I love a well-tuned subwoofer (or two or three) in any audiophile system, but the old audiophile concept of bass somehow being better from the speakers is in play here, in that the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers dip to 24 Hz. That’s low, and they play plenty loud, too, in case you were worried.
- The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers report a respectable 88 dB-efficient, thus they aren’t too hard to drive. I rarely got out of the Class-A range of my Pass Labs XA-25 amp (which is about 25 watts before it switches over to Class-AB) for much of my listening. The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers were never even remotely an issue to drive. A big receiver likely does the job, but I powered them with Pass Labs and the German-made SPL Performer s1200 (520 watts), as well as the $9,500 Boulder 861, and the SVS just ate up all of the excellence in incoming power/electronics. Like most audiophile speakers that get all of the editorial love these days, the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacles like power, but they don’t need it to sound fantastic.
- The new diamond-coated tweeter offers a big sonic improvement. I am not a speaker engineer, but whatever SVS did from the last-version tweeter to this one is notable. It sounds more open and less tinny or strained on the high end. SVS reports that the tweeter’s performance extends a little bit lower than the past tweeter, thus allowing them more options with voicing or crossover points.
- The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers come in a piano gloss white, a piano black as well as a premium black oak finish. This may seem like a silly topic, but I’ve discussed the importance of loudspeaker finishes with some of the biggest speaker empresarios in the world and, take it from me, the up-front costs of making a second finish like white for a speaker like the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers is not chump change. Why is it worth it? Many people want a modern-looking speaker, but big black monoliths are a lot to look at in some listening/living spaces. My test samples came in black, because the white speakers had sold out, literally in weeks.
- While the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers are big and heavy, they aren’t hard to set up successfully. I employed the help of my 12-year-old son to help me remove the speakers from the box and install the spikes. Later, on my own, I was able to get the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle speakers to image fantastically (both center imaging and outside the dimensions of the speakers) within minutes and with a bit of toe-in.
Why Should You Care About the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Loudspeakers?
You have a big room, but not a big budget, and are looking for a major audiophile improvement – not some Nth degree of performance cliché … you’re the person who should be interested in the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers. You have a taste for the most expensive audio, but you live in the real world and don’t ever go into debt to buy audio. You, too, will be very interested in the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers. You like bass and want your main speakers to really be full-range, and the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers have you covered. You are an “audiophile value investor” who can afford more expensive speakers, but are proud of finding that stock that hasn’t popped yet. The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers are heading up-up-up after their recent IPO, and that will be appealing to some audiophiles looking for a killer, dark-horse option at $5,000 per pair.
Some Things You May Not Like About the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Speakers …
- The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacles as ported speakers are room-sensitive in ways that other designs are not. Definitive Technology speakers, GoldenEar, Magnepan, ESL MartinLogans – all of these speakers tend to be room-sensitive by design, and the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers are, too. My main audiophile listening room is real-world and uniquely imperfect. While I didn’t do my listening tests with my Anthem STR stereo preamp’s ARC room correction engaged, when I did run it, it cleared up a bit of the congestion in the midrange that was easily audible. Long-term, I would start with some form of reasonably-priced bass traps to treat my room in the physical domain first.
- Living in Los Angeles, with a 2.5-year-old causing trouble as his stated profession, I would have liked to see a more stable footing system. In my room, I have fabric straps literally bolted to the wall to protect my Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4 speakers, and they could be used for the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers as well. Perhaps this could be made and sold as an upgrade item. but the outriggers (fancy word for feet) that come with my $2,000 MartinLogan Motion Foundation F2 speakers in my media room would make the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers way more stable in an earthquake or when Lightning McQueen is driving up and down the sides of the speakers perhaps a little too aggressively?
Listening to the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Loudspeakers …
Here is where this review of the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers is going to be a bit of a departure from the norm, in that I would have almost certainly put the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers downstairs parked besides my 85-inch Sony 4K monitor, with a Marantz AV preamp and a trusty old Halcro seven-channel power amp. But that’s not what I did. I held the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers up to silly standards in comparing them to my $28,000 per pair reference speakers, the Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4s, as well as the recently reviewed Swiss audiophile darling Stenheim Alumine Two.Five speakers at $23,500 per pair. The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers were seeing signal from a BlueSound Node into one of two high-end professional audio DACs, Bricasti M3 or Benchmark Media DAC3 B, fed into an SPL or Anthem stereo preamp. I got a chance to use not just my reference Pass Labs XA-25 power amp, but also the very impressive German-made, Class-AB SPL s1200 amp (with up to 525 watts per channel), as well as the remarkable Boulder 861 amp that was also recently in for review. This is some high-end gear to push the potential of the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers in ways that they’ve never been pushed.
Could “Blackbird” (the Beatles cover) from Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album be the best audiophile demo track of 2024? I think the multi-generational appeal of The Beatles’ music paired, with Beyoncé’s cultural and musical importance as a relevant, modern artist makes the case, but it is the sound of this cost-no-object, recorded-during-COVID track is just silly-good. Even if you would never normally listen to Beyoncé, stream it and let me know what you think in the comments below. Beyoncé’s version of “Blackbird” is so wonderfully layered with overdubs that there is a lot to listen for and the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers deliver in spades. The effect of the new tweeter is the first thing that caught my attention. I’ve raved about how good the tweeter is on the Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series speakers, as this part alone weighs in the ballpark of eight pounds and is a design tour de force that few speaker companies could hope to engineer and build. The new tweeter in the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers had a lot of that open sound when playing “Blackbird” from QoBuz. Were the highs as open and airy as the nearly six times more expensive Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4 speakers? No, but the improvement over the past tweeter is notable, and the highs sounded really good with no hash or harshness to the sound, as you might expect with speakers in the $5,000 price range. I was impressed.
Another modern recording that really caught my attention, which I’ve played on every component that has come into my system in 2024, is “The Court (Darkside Mix)” from the new Peter Gabriel i/o album via QoBuz. The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers have the bass energy to create a visceral sound that has physical impact that other more lauded, establishment audiophile speakers simply can’t dream of. The percussive details were resolute and popped into space in front of the speakers, but it was the deep bass in the bridge and chorus that really stood out. This is where the room correction helped the most to clear up bass anomalies that I have in my room, but these tests were done without ARC in place. The ARC cleared up some congestion in the lower range of Gabriel’s vocal on the track, and made the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers sound more like the Stenheim Two.Five speakers, which are made in Switzerland out of thick, heavy aluminum and might have the most resonance-dead cabinets of any speaker for sale today at any price. In keeping with the Peter Gabriel vibe, “Don’t Give Up” from the iconic 1986 SO album is a far inferior recording because of technology of that era, but the Tony Levin Chapman Stick bassline is some of the most musical bass that I’ve heard in my room, with more energy coming from the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers than, say, the Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4s.
Since we are on a bit of a run with modern recordings for our best audiophile demos, I cued up the instant-audiophile-class demo track from Marcin and his acoustic guitar (plus bass) cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” on QoBuz. Here is another familiar melody being presented in a whole new way. Imagine if Eddie Van Halen was working in an Italian restaurant with aims to musically impress the diners? That’s what the gist of the production strategy of this track is getting at, and it sounds great. Marcin is tapping his strings like EVH and beating on the side of his guitar like those hippies in the drum circle down at Venice Beach. The bass output on the track was remarkable and reminiscent of the incredible demo that I heard of this track in a nearly million-dollar room/system in Boulder, Colorado. The SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers were able to prove the same powerful, feel-your-music experience that $750,000 gets you.
Do the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Loudspeakers Have Good Resale Value?
SVS has some of the best distribution for their products in the nation, including Best Buy (Magnolia for these speakers), Crutchfield, Amazon, and brick and mortar stores, as well as a growing list of custom installers, thus people know the SVS brand. Their marketing is at better-than-Bose levels, be it on social media, with AV industry ads, video presence and more.
Then there’s the fact that these speakers are stone-cold selling out. I know from years past that, much like Southwest Airlines buys fuel options to control their operational costs, SVS knows lead times for their speakers can be months and months (like six), so they order a lot when they order. They never expected to sell out of SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers in weeks. That’s probably the best sign that you are going to be OK with your audiophile speaker budget invested in the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers.
What Is the Competition for the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Loudspeakers?
It is hard to be exact, because the brand makes so many different permutations of speakers, but the Texton Design Double Impacts at $3,100 per pair come to mind as competition. These 98 dB-efficient speakers are about the easiest to drive outside of horn-based loudspeaker designs, which is a plus for the Tektons. The patented grouping of round, small (tweeter-like) drivers for a midrange driver is beyond unique and a sound that I like, but Tekton’s midrange sound is not universally loved. Many paint colors and a speaker that isn’t as placement-critical also go in the Tekton’s favor, but the reluctance to make speaker grilles is an audiophile oddity. The best comparison is in the fact that, for very little money, you get a lot of sound and a lot of impact for your money. With the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers, you get better industrial design, better resale, and real boxes but, most importantly, more overall refinement.
The Bowers & Wilkins 702 S3s at $6,999 are another good comp for the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers. They are slightly more money and slightly more refined. Trickle-down has proven to not be a thing in economics, but it definitely is real when it comes to technology and you get a good bit of what makes my Bowers & Wilkins 802 D4s special for a fraction of the price in the Bowers & Wilkins 702 S3s. You are not going to get as much of that visceral sound from the 702 S3s as you will from the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers. The visual look of the 702 S3s is a bit more subtle with some gorgeous finish options. SVS is building its reputation in the high-end loudspeaker world when Bowers & Wilkins has been at the pinnacle for more than a generation, which could incrementally impact resale value if that is a hot button topic for you.
The MartinLogan XT F200 speakers at $5,499 bring an AMT tweeter to a competitive speaker for the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers. These tall and slim floorstanding speakers are dressed to kill, and pack that gloriously open high-frequency sound that the AMT tweeter delivers, which makes them have a different sonic signature to the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacles. I like the plinth on the Bowers & Wilkins, and the outriggers on these MartinLogans for stability. Again, you will not get 24 Hz frequencies in the low end from these speakers the way you will with the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle speakers.
Final Thoughts on the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle Speakers …
You’ve likely heard the term “punching above their weight,” and that is the thought that I had over and over again listening to the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers. You get so much for your audiophile dollar that the SVS tradition of delivering beyond-expectations level of value is still very much alive and well with this new series of speakers.
Today, the audiophile hobby celebrates billionaire-class products like they are above reproach. Here’s a fact for all of us who are forced to live in a post-factual society… There are roughly about 1,000 billionaires in the United States, and about 2,800 total in a world populated with 8,100,000,000 human beings. Simply put: most people can’t afford $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, or especially $750,000 audiophile loudspeakers. What is reassuring about the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers is that, if you are a hard-working person who has a love for music paired with a taste for really good audio, there are options for you today that are turning into the best options that the industry has ever been able to offer consumers. In the larger floorstanding market, the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle speakers need to be considered the frontrunners in terms of value and performance at anywhere near their price range.
