Floorstanding loudspeakers — SVS Sound Prime Pinnacle

The Prime Pinnacle is the three-way tower that SVS, the Ohio company known first for its subwoofers, describes as the fullest expression of its Prime Series loudspeakers. The range around it also includes the Prime Tower, Prime Bookshelf, Prime Center and Prime Satellite models plus a height speaker. SVS lists it at USD 999.99 per speaker in Premium Black Ash and USD 1,099.99 in Piano Gloss Black, and each unit carries five years of unconditional warranty cover from the maker.

Key specs that matter

SVS fits a 1-inch aluminium dome tweeter, a 5.25-inch midrange and three 6.5-inch woofers. Rated bandwidth is 29 Hz to 25 kHz within 3 dB, nominal impedance is 8 ohms, and sensitivity is 88 dB measured at 2.83 V and 1 m in full space between 300 Hz and 3 kHz. SVS recommends amplifiers of 20 to 300 watts. The cabinet measures 102.8 cm tall, 20.3 cm wide and 34 cm deep, growing to 104.4 cm by 35.3 cm deep once grille, feet and terminals are counted, and each speaker weighs 25.9 kg unboxed.

Engineering and use context

The crossover hands over from tweeter to midrange at 2.1 kHz and from midrange to woofers at 300 Hz, both with 12 dB per octave slopes. It is built on a two-piece circuit board with heavy traces, air-core inductors and upgraded capacitors, split to reduce interference between parts. Inside, the cabinet is divided into four chambers - a sealed, angle-braced enclosure for the midrange and three separate woofer boxes, each vented by its own 2-inch flared rear port tuned to a different frequency. Using three smaller woofers instead of one large cone keeps the front narrow. The woofers have polypropylene cones, long-stroke motors, aluminium shorting rings, vented voice coil formers and cast ABS and fiberglass baskets. The midrange uses a glass-fiber composite cone and borrows design elements from the SVS Ultra line, and the tweeter sits behind a diffuser shaped with finite element analysis. Chamfered baffle edges, flush-mounted drivers and a cloth grille held by pins and cups reduce diffraction.

Pairing

Given its benign impedance and moderate efficiency, the tower suits most stereo integrated amplifiers and AV receivers within the stated power window, and a single pair of 5-way binding posts takes spades, bananas or bare wire. SVS keeps the same crossover topology across its speakers, so the Prime Center, Prime Satellite and Ultra models can be added for a multichannel system with matched voicing, and the rear ports call for some space from the wall behind.

Alternatives

The SVS Prime Tower is a second floorstanding model within the same Prime Series.