Floorstanding loudspeakers — SVS Sound Prime Tower

The Prime Tower is the smaller floorstanding speaker in the SVS Prime Series, and SVS notes that its design and engineering cues come from the Ultra Series speakers. SVS lists it at USD 599.99 each in black ash and USD 699.99 in piano gloss black. Its layout of one tweeter, one midrange and two woofers is called a 3.5-way design by SVS.

Key specs that matter

Drivers are a 1 inch aluminium dome tweeter, a 4.5 inch polypropylene midrange and two 6.5 inch polypropylene woofers. Rated bandwidth is 30 Hz to 25 kHz within plus or minus 3 dB, nominal impedance is 8 ohm and sensitivity is 87 dB with 2.83 V at 1 m in full space, measured between 300 Hz and 3 kHz. SVS recommends 20 to 250 watts of amplification. The cabinet is 914 mm high, 203 mm wide and 282 mm deep, growing to 930 by 203 by 295 mm with grille and feet, and one speaker weighs 18.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

The SoundMatch crossover uses a tapered woofer array in which each woofer has its own discrete filter. Handover from midrange to tweeter happens at 2.1 kHz with 12 dB per octave slopes, the upper woofer meets the midrange at 350 Hz with the same slope, and the lower woofer is rolled off at 165 Hz with a custom filter Q and slope, which SVS says reduces lobing on the vertical axis. A sealed chamber of its own houses the midrange, a choice meant to push standing waves outside its pass band, while each woofer has a separate internal chamber with its own port tuning. Two 43 mm flared ports exit at the rear. Midrange and woofers share aluminium shorting rings to cut gap inductance, cast ABS and fibreglass composite baskets and vented voice coil formers, and the woofers add long-stroke motors and suspensions. The crossover uses air-core inductors on heavy-trace boards, the cabinet and bracing were optimised by FEA, and the front panel has chamfered edges with flush-mounted drivers and an FEA-shaped tweeter diffuser.

Pairing

With its nominal impedance and that wide power span, the tower suits stereo amplifiers and AV receivers of modest output. The speaker has one set of 5-way binding posts, which rules out a bi-wired connection. Stick-on elastomer bumpers, which add 3 mm to the height, and screw-in metal spikes that level the cabinet are both included, and the cloth grille, which SVS shaped by FEA to limit diffraction, attaches with pins and cups.

Alternatives

The SVS Prime Pinnacle is a bigger tower from the Prime Series.