SVS Prime Loudspeaker Series and PC-2000 Subwoofer Preview

If you’ve been keeping tabs on SVS’ Facebook page, you’ll know they’ve been hinting at a big reveal for the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Now that the show is in full swing, the curtain has been lifted for all to see. The big announcement for the show is SVS’ new Prime loudspeaker series. The lineup consists of four models: a satellite speaker, a bookshelf speaker, a center channel, and a set of towers to round things out. Prices for the new line range from $269.99 to $1,199.99/pair, positioning the Primes at roughly half the cost of the Ultra line. SVS also had a “smaller” announcement at RMAF: the release of the PC-2000, a ported cylinder subwoofer with performance identical to the boxy PB-2000.

The Primes

The first thing you’ll notice about the new Prime series is that they look very…familiar. One glance at the pictures and you can tell a lot of the design cues were pulled from the Ultra series loudspeakers. The 1” aluminum dome tweeter looks suspiciously similar to the model used in the Ultra model, and features a substantial amount of trickle down technology from its older brother including an FEA-optimized diffuser for improved dispersion. Of course, the similarities extend beyond the surface, with the Primes also utilizing SVS’ SoundMatch premium grade crossovers. So are we getting Ultra speakers for half off? Not quite.

The Primes do feature new midrange drivers and woofers, which boast polypropylene diaphragms, cast ABS-fiberglass-carbon composite baskets, a vented voice coil former for improved power handling, and an aluminum shorting ring to help reduce distortion. In other words, the Primes are working with some pretty nice drivers in their own right. So just what are these Primes we speak of?

Prime Tower: A 3.5-way floorstanding speaker featuring a 1” aluminum dome tweeter, 4.5” polypropylene midrange unit, and dual 6.5” woofers in a dual ported cabinet. Price is $999.99/pair in Black Ash, and $1,199.99/pair in Piano Black.

The SVS Prime Tower

Prime Bookshelf: A 2-way monitor featuring a 1” aluminum dome tweeter and 6.5” mid/woofer in a ported cabinet. Price is $499.99/pair in Black Ash, and $599.99/pair in Piano Black.

The SVS Prime Bookshelf

Prime Center: A 3-way center channel speaker featuring a 1” aluminum dome tweeter, 3.5” polypropylene midrange unit, and dual 5.25” woofers in a dual ported cabinet. Price is $349.99 apiece in Black Ash, and $449.99 in Piano Black.

The SVS Prime Center

Prime Satellite: A compact 2-way speaker featuring a 1” aluminum dome tweeter and 4.5” mid/woofer in a ported cabinet. Price is $269.99/pair in Black Ash, and $349.99/pair in Piano Black.

The SVS Prime Satellite

Unfortunately, SVS hasn’t released all of the specifications of the new lineup (frequency response, sensitivity, impedance, crossover points, etc.), which limits how much analysis we can perform. At a glance, we note that the satellite is an interesting addition, as it appears to replace the traditional bipole/dipole surround speaker seen in the Ultra lineup. The small size (8.75”H x 4.9”W x 5.53”D) certainly gives the Prime Satellite a variety of placement options, and the folks at SVS state that it is more than capable of being used in the L/C/R slots for a high end compact system.

And A New Water Heater

The announcement of the PC-2000 isn’t quite as exciting to us as the release of the Prime series. The reason is pretty simple: the PC-2000 is merely the cylinder form factor of the PB-2000, utilizing the same 12” woofer and 500W RMS amplifier in a large vented cabinet. Nonetheless, the PC-2000 does have some notable differences as compared with SVS’s previous cylinder designs. To start, while the old PC12-NSD had its port placed on the cylinder’s top plate, the PC-2000 utilizes a rear firing port, allowing the top plate to be a single solid piece finished in black oak ($799.99) or piano black ($849.99). The PC-2000 also nixes the baseplate, instead replaced by four SoundPath Isolation Feet that are designed to decouple the subwoofer from the floor, theoretically reducing unwanted rattles, buzzing, etc. We’re also hoping that this reduces the tendency of the subwoofer to “walk” on hard floors (i.e. tile, hardwood, etc.), which was one issue we found with the PC12-NSD.

The SVS PC-2000

Of course even with these stylistic changes, there’s no denying that the cylinder subwoofers have all the aesthetic appeal of a water heater in your listening room. On the upside, the SVS cylinders are relatively lightweight and consequently are much easier to move around. We’ve also found that the black fabric finish does a good job of disappearing in a darkened room. Then there’s the matter of floor space. With an outer diameter of 16-5/8”, the PC-2000 can fit in some tight spots where the PB-2000 simply won’t. Are those benefits worth the “unique” look? That’s for you to decide.

Summary

On the face of it, SVS seems to be offering the majority of the performance from their Ultra speakers for half the cost with the new Prime series. The kicker is that aesthetics doesn’t appear to take a nosedive as usually happens when a manufacturer decides to offer a “value” series. Needless to say, we’d like to get these speakers in for evaluation posthaste. We can’t claim to be quite as excited about the PC-2000 subwoofer given that it’s identical in all but form factor to the PB-2000. However, we are curious to see whether the new SoundPath Isolation Feet work as advertised, and to see if they can keep the PC-2000 in one spot on tile / hardwood surfaces.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.