01-28-2022

For our listening enjoyment today, we have the SVS Prime Towers. These relatively compact towers provide tremendous sound from a small footprint. We will expand upon the details ahead in the review.

Fit and Finish

SVS built the Prime Towers with an excellent sense of detail like their other products. The model I received was finished in a flawless Piano Black at $700 each. They are also available in Black Ash for $600. The compact-size SVS Primes come in at 36.6” (H) 8” (W) 11.6” (D), with all drivers’ flush mounted to an extra-thick baffle to preserve acoustics.

The Prime’s possess a 1” aluminum FEA optimized tweeter diffuser; I will discuss this later in the listening section. A 4.5” polypropylene midrange driver to carry frequencies 2.1 kHz to 350 Hz. The bottom woofer has an extended range; thus, the Prime Tower is a 3.5-way setup. The driver complement includes pair of 6.5” polypropylene woofers to cover bass and sub-bass duties. The first woofer is playing from a respectable 350 Hz to 150 Hz, while the second woofer extends from 350 Hz soundly down to 30 Hz in the right conditions.

To achieve such measurements, each speaker contains individual cabinets for the midrange, mid-woofer, and woofer, the rear vented to a 1.7” port.

Addressing the FEA tweeter design allows for a smooth upper frequency, which is not often the case with some metal domes. And never shrill or piercing when producing extended harmonics.

The Setup

Setup for these speakers was a challenge, but worth it. My listening room is 11’ by 13’–small, but when speakers are setup up correctly, it sounds amazing. With the SVS Primes, placement is key. In this case, I had to place them further from the wall than other speakers, at 27.5” from the inner baffles and 29.5” from the outer baffles. By doing this I achieved both the right amount of placement out in the room as well as the toe. Not having the Primes setup correctly results in poor imaging and boomy bass.

Toe-in relation to your ear is for the “sweet spot” is amazingly critical with these speakers for the listener but worth it.

A perfect setup will lead the speakers to create a phantom image, a virtual center channel that immerses one into the music left to right. As well as bring layering to for soundstage dependent upon the music, closer or further to the listener.

In addition, the location of the single five-way binding post is a bit too low to the ground if you use a spade. I had to use a 1/2” socket to ensure a firm connection.

Listening Time

Before we do any critical listening, I played between 20-50 hours of music at a moderate volume for all the new drivers to open up. By opening up, I mean allowing for the speakers and other components to arrive at a playable state. Not doing will show the wrong presentation of the speaker, in particular the midrange. I did some occasional non-critical listening while the speaker was new. The speaker sounded as if the midrange was too quiet in the first few hours. Now to the fun.

In our listening portion brought Fourplay’s beautiful 30th anniversary of their first album self-titled, Fourplay’s, track-With You Were Here. In this exquisite arrangement, we are introduced by the crackle of a lifelike snare shot, keys, bass that reaches down, most of all a luscious guitar played throughout. As I continue to listen I can, I cannot help to become lost in how cohesive all the drivers are together despite being a rather bass-heavy album. One would think that having two 1.7” ports would hinder the speaker, but this is not the case. And at that perhaps cause chuffing due to the size of the small ports, on would be wrong as there is none.

To show what is controlled chaos, I switched gear to Beethoven, played by the Pittsburgh Symphony, Symphony-Symphony No.5 C Minor (“Fate”), Op. 67 1808. This is quite a challenging piece as there are multiple stops in music, key changes, crescendos, followed, by quieter passages, and to think in no order. This said the Prime’s have fantastic control of each passage of music regardless of the musical situation.

Music is quick, realistic, enjoyable, and the design of the crossover allows for an enriching experience. Each passage wants oneself to keep listening to classical, even if this is not your taste.

For our final musical rendition, we listen to Eric Clapton’s album, Unplugged. This is a rather emotional album from the song Tears from Heaven, written about his departed son to the song, Layla. Which each song conveys sadness, happiness, or what have you as this is a superbly recorded album. As such the Primes can deliver this to the audience with a fantastic crossover network painting a cohesive picture.

For additional content, I did pair the speakers with a powerful, yet compact subwoofer, the SVS SB-3000. The SB-3000 is a compact 15” cube with a 13” sealed woofer. Such albums I played were, Daft Punk’s-Random Access Memories, Bella Fleck & Flecktones-Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, and Esperanza Spalding-Emily’s D+ Evolution. All three of these albums are Audiophile quality and have hard-hitting bass. The kicker here is the sub is set at a low 40Hz crossover point, just proving how low the Primes can achieve. Also being both speakers and subwoofer are SVS they bled effortlessly.

Suggestions

As mentioned in setup, the position of the five-way binding posts in the rear needs to be raised a minimum of a foot for convenience, especially if you run spades such as I do. The location close to the floor makes it difficult, without a socket to securely attach spades as it is.

The only other suggestion is to make the speaker two to four inches taller to raise the tweeter. As it is, this speaker is a bit on the short side and requires you to sit a bit low, this goes for a chair or couch.

Recommendations

There are not many recommendations for the SVS Prime’s, though the ones that exist are quite important.

The location of five-way binding posts needs to be raised as it is quite low to the ground. Being so low makes for a difficult time to attach spades as I use, let alone just bend over. Raising the location of the binding posts by one foot would solve this issue.

As mentioned, the location of the floor spikes is too far inwards on the speakers. Moving the location of the speaker spikes outwards by approximately ½” on all corners would solve this.

A minor suggestion but not a must be to change over the way the speaker grills attach to the speakers. Currently, the speakers use a push pin method. Switching to a magnetic method would result in a cleaner look, the fronts of the speakers are finished the same as the rest of the speakers.

Overall, it was a complete joy to review the SVS Prime towers. Upon first listen I had come to an opinion that was not even close to the final listen. Out of the box, the Primes sounds a bit dark, and as if the midrange was too quiet. Though, being a new “Out of the box” experience I gave the speaker more time and let the speaker play more. This allows for the speaker to truly open, acoustic suspension to loosen up playing elasticity.

After the mentioned 50+ hours of playing music at moderate volume, the acoustic properties of the speaker had changed to their final character. And now, I was able to judge the true tonal character. The SVS Prime manages to deliver a detailed presentation, without being overly bright, a trait often found in metal dome tweeters. The midrange is smooth, not forward or chesty, yet lifelike, which is difficult to produce from a compact size tower under 40”. Bass and the lower octaves down to the sub-octave region is a bit interesting as, the speaker does have a bit of a boost here, but not boomy. Placement during setup is critical to sound. Rich is the best place to describe the lower end of the speaker. The speaker is rated from Freq. Response | 30 Hz-25 kHz (±3 dB), which is true, but not flat. A subwoofer can still be used, as the bass does start to fall off around 45 Hz.

To power this speaker a home theater receiver may be used, but I would recommend a dedicated power amp as the Primes like power. The SVS Primes are a compact pair of speakers and can fit in just about any room. Regardless of the environment, the SVS Primes are a fantastic match for a two-channel system or a small home theater.

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Gear Used

• RME ADI-2 DAC FS

• Raspberry Pi4 (RoPieee) Endpoint

• Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra Amp

• Roon Nucleus+

• iPad (7Th Gen)

• SVS SB-3000

Music List

• Fourplay- Fourplay (30th Anniversary Edition)

https://open.qobuz.com/track/139313998

• Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7

https://open.qobuz.com/album/0030911271824

• Eric Clapton- Unplugged (Deluxe Edition)

https://open.qobuz.com/album/0603497909032

• Daft Punk- Random Access Memories

https://open.qobuz.com/album/0886443927087

• Béla Fleck And The Flecktones- Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo

https://open.qobuz.com/album/0075992656269

• Esperanza Spalding-Emily’s D+Evolution (Deluxe Edition)

https://open.qobuz.com/album/0088807239149