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- The SVS Ultra Tower: What You Need to Know
- What You'd Like About the SVS Ultra Tower
- What You Might Not Like About the SVS Ultra Tower
- The Bottom Line
- Alternatives to the SVS Ultra Tower
- Aperion Audio Verus III Tower
- Polk Audio T50
- Definitive Technology BP-9060 Tower Speaker
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Should You Buy an SVS Ultra Tower Speaker?
Tower speakers offer you an all in one audio solution without needing a shelf or tabletop to sit on. You can place it on your floors, and you’re well on your way to a better music listening or movie watching experience. The SVS Ultra Tower speaker is one of the many choices you should consider.
There are several things that can make you admire the SVS Ultra Tower. For one, it comes from a company known for its subwoofers, and that reputation is shown in these tower speakers. You get excellent sounding tower speakers at a reasonable price. And it looks great too.
What are the things that you need to know? And what are the alternatives you should compare it to? Read on and let’s learn more about the SVS Ultra Tower together.
The Ultra Tower Speaker delivers a deep and detailed soundstage with incredible resolution, absolute transparency, and amazingly rich and articulated bass - outperforming other brands costing two and three times their price.
The SVS Ultra Tower: What You Need to Know
One of the things you’d notice is the booming bass and clear highs that the SVS Ultra Tower delivers. And that’s not surprising as the manufacturer claims a frequency response range of 28 hertz to 32 kilohertz. To help you appreciate how impressive that is, humans can hear anywhere from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz.
It also carries a nominal impedance of 8.0 ohms, which means that this speaker will draw less power to do its job compared to other speakers with a lower impedance setting. Sensitivity is rated at 88 decibels.
This tower speaker will need a watt of power to deliver 88 decibels of loudness. This level is average for good speakers.
Design
The SVS Ultra Tower is a floor-standing loudspeaker that measures 45.6 by 13.8 by 16.5 inches (116 by 35 by 42 centimeters). It has detachable grills if you want to protect the drivers, and this will add 0.3 inches (8 millimeters) to the depth. One tower speaker weighs 75.4 pounds (34 kilograms).
The thing with the SVS Ultra Tower design is that the company did not spare any expense in ensuring the best sound performance and top-notch build quality.
Drivers
The SVS Ultra Tower has a huge cabinet, and that allows for a lot of big drivers as well. They are:
- One-inch (25 millimeters) aluminium dome tweeter
- Two 6.5-inch (16.5 centimeters) glass-fiber mid-range drivers
- Two 8-inch (20 centimeters) woofers
You will also find a rear-firing port that complements the woofers that are side-firing. That simply means that the sound from the woofers goes out in different directions and allows your speakers to fill the room with deep, earth-shaking bass.
The design is not only for aesthetics but also for the best sound quality. The tapered edges at the chamfers, for instance, help to give your precision and clarity for the sound stage because it minimizes edge diffraction.
Interactions between two different drivers are kept at a minimum as the tweeter and the midrange drivers have their own enclosures.
SVS SoundMatch 3.5-Way Crossover
SVS does its magic to make sure that the top midrange frequencies interact with the tweeter while the bottom middle frequencies go to the woofers. What you get is an accurate soundstage that is focused yet expansive.
In short, you have very accurate sounds without the beaming.
What You’d Like About the SVS Ultra Tower
If you like earth-shaking explosions from that action movie you’re watching, or perhaps to annoy the neighbor with all the thumps and thuds of Biggie Smalls’ Notorious Thugs, then this is the speaker for you. The heavy bass is still very responsive and agile.
What’s more, if you’re looking for a home theater system that would match being inside an actual movie theater, then the SVS Ultra Tower will be an excellent addition.
What You Might Not Like About the SVS Ultra Tower
The SVS Ultra Tower Speakers will need a lot of space. You cannot put it too close to a wall or in a closed-in area. If you put it next to a wall, you’d get a lot more bass than what you bargained for.
What’s more, if you put it in an enclosed area, you’d get closed-in sound. And while the bass is exceptional, the tweeters aren’t. The treble is not as refined as you would like it to be, nor is it as detailed as other speakers in this price range. That means you will not get away with playing poorly recorded tracks on these speakers.
The Bottom Line
The SVS Ultra Tower is a massive speaker, and it needs a lot of room to do its work. It delivers excellent sound quality, especially the bass.
You may notice fewer details and some sort of crassness to the treble if you’re listening to low-quality audio. But that is not to say that you should just snub the SVS Ultra Tower. There is a lot to like here, such as the design, the heft, and the top-notch construction.
It works perfectly when used as a home theater system. The dialogs come off as natural, and the explosions and background music are immersive.
When it comes to the design, it’s a mixed bag. A lot of thought has been given to these speakers’ design, but it’s something that you should love. The highly glossy finish is like some sort of black mirror. You can catch your reflection on it.
Plus, the sloping build of the cabinet makes it difficult to conceal if you hate it. At any point in the future, one may want to put a piece of cloth over these speakers to somehow get rid of all that gloss, but you’d find it challenging to make the cloth stay in place.
If you don’t like your speakers sheeny and shiny, the black oak finish is a godsend.
Pros
- Bass lovers will want to buy these speakers
- Build quality is top-notch
Cons
- Treble may be a bit troubled if you’re playing back poorly recorded audio
Quick Specs
- Frequency Response Range: 28 hertz to 32 kilohertz at +/- 3 decibels
- Nominal impedance: 8 ohms.
- Sensitivity: 88 decibels (2.83V @ 1 meter full-space).
- Recommended amplifier power: 20-300 watts.
- 1” Aluminum Dome Tweeter
- 6.5” Midrange Drivers
- 8” Woofers
- 3.5-way crossover
Alternatives to the SVS Ultra Tower
There are some alternatives to the SVS Ultra Tower speakers.
Aperion Audio Verus III Tower
The Aperion Audio Verus III Tower sells for around $1,200 to $1,300. Still, you get a patented ASR tweeter, a pair of 5.25-inch (13 centimeters) Kevlar midrange drivers, and a pair of 6.5-inch (16.5 centimeters) Kevlar woofers. It effectively delivers a frequency range of 35 hertz to 35 kilohertz.
What’s more, it has an attractive design and is an excellent addition to your home theater system. You’ll be in the middle of any movie you watch while the music listening experience is upgraded.
You can hear all the individual guitar plucks with these speakers and the depth of sounds that a bass drum can deliver.
Pros
- Gorgeous looks that match the excellent sound quality that these speakers deliver
- Treble mode feature gives a broader audience the perfect sound for them
- Sounds good, even when the volume is turned all the way up
Cons
- The removable magnetic grilles are recessed and might be difficult to pull off
- You will need to install the feet that come with the speaker, but it might prove to be a challenge to get them on correctly
Polk Audio T50
If you’re not ready to spend around $1,000 for a speaker, you can go with the Polk Audio T50. These affordable floor-standing speakers give you big sounds with their one-inch (2.5 millimeters) tweeter, a pair of 6.5-inch (16.5 centimeters) bass radiators, and a 6.5-inch (16.5 centimeters) woofer.
The frequency range is rated at 38 hertz to 24 kilohertz.
What’s more, these speakers do not take up too much floor space, measuring only 36.3 by 7.8 by 8.8 inches (92 by 198 by 22 centimeters). These tower speakers are also not that tall. So if you’re looking for a tower speaker that you can set on your floors without it looking like it’s dominating the space, then the Polk Audio T50 is for you.
Plus, it is a polished and elegant speaker with a fiberboard cabinet with black wood grain and a vinyl finish. It also comes with a removable cloth grille that can help protect the drivers if you have kids or pets poking into speakers.
One thing with the Polk Audio T50 is that it doesn’t have a bass port, so you can place it anywhere. Unlike the SVS Ultra Tower, which needs a lot of space all around it, you can put the Polk Audio T50 back against a wall, and it will not sound bad.
What’s more, if you’re looking to use these towers as part of a surround sound system, you don’t have to worry about incompatible speakers.
You can just get the Polk T Series, which includes these tower speakers, the T30 center-channel speaker, and the T15 bookshelf and surround speakers. The manufacturer also offers its own line of compatible subwoofers.
How does this speaker sound? The Polk Audio T50 has a well-defined and tight bass and clear overall audio quality. These tower speakers will be enough if you want a complete surround sound experience.
With music, the T50 also impresses with its responsiveness and clarity for its price range. These speakers do not have the best tweeters around, but it’s pretty impressive, given that it costs very little money.
Pros
- The Polk Audio T50 looks excellent with its black wood grain appearance
- It comes with a five-year warranty
Cons
- High frequencies might be slightly off
- It may not be compatible with your amplifier, so check thoroughly
Definitive Technology BP-9060 Tower Speaker
Definitive Technology is a manufacturer of high-end audio equipment, and the BP-9060 Tower Speaker is one of their current offerings that delivers Dolby Atmos.
The company has a range of products that uses Atmos technology, such as the CS9060, A90, and the BP9080x. But on their own, the BP-9060 tower speakers deliver all the bass that you need.
These speakers have the company’s bipolar speaker design, where the drivers are placed at the rear and front of the speaker. What it does is give you a deep and wide sound stage that traditional speakers cannot match.
You get a more realistic music-listening and movie-watching experience. And as we mentioned before, you don’t need to buy an external subwoofer for these tower speakers. They already have them on board.
These built-in subwoofers also have an amplifier. The subwoofers give you a more balanced and smoother bass regardless of where you sit.
The BP-9060 has a one-inch (2.5 millimeters) aluminum dome tweeter, a pair of 4.5-inch (11.4 centimeters) midrange drivers, a pair of 10-inch (25.4 centimeters) bass radiators, and a 300-watt Class D amplifier.
It has a rated frequency response of 18 hertz to 40 kilohertz and an energy-saving 8-ohm impedance. These speakers can get quite loud at 92 decibels.
Pros
- Full-range response
- Work with other Definitive Technology products to create a vast soundstage for your music and movies
- No subwoofers required
Cons
- Bipolar placement of drivers is not that good at pinpoint imaging
- Fabric wrap can tear
- It needs to be plugged in
Frequently Asked Questions
There are things that readers like you have always wondered about, and these are our answers to three of the most often asked questions we get from you guys!
Question: What is a tower speaker?
Answer: Tower speakers are also called floor standing speakers. As the name implies, these tall speakers are placed on the floor and don’t need to be elevated from a shelf or even have speaker stands.
A tower speaker is generally large or tall enough to accommodate several drivers: tweeters, bass drivers, midrange drivers. However, a tower speaker will rarely deliver the full range of sound.
However, compared to other types of speakers, tower speakers can deliver a wider frequency range. This broader range is made possible by having several drivers in the speaker and the passive radiators that some tower speakers have.
Question: How do you choose the best tower speakers?
Answer: When buying a tower speaker, there are a lot more drivers that you have to check. Make sure that the manufacturer includes one of the four types of drivers out there, such as the midrange drivers, woofer, subwoofer, and tweeter.
Having these drivers will ensure that the tower speaker you buy has a wider frequency range that can go from 20 hearts to more than 30 kilohertz
Cabinet construction and design are also crucial for tower speakers. Because you’re dealing with a bigger speaker, you should make sure that the cabinet is durable and doesn’t allow for resonance to minimize distortion.
The space where you’re going to put the tower speakers is also essential. If you choose one with rear-, side-, or front-firing ports, then you should make sure that there’s enough space not just for the speaker but allowances from walls and other objects. Not giving allowances will result in your speaker sounding terrible or closed in.
Further, you should look at the specifications. Make sure it has a wide frequency response and the right sensitivity and impedance.
Further, choose speakers with building post terminals rather than spring clips. Or if you can find one, choose a tower speaker that offers both.
Question: What are the benefits of a tower speaker?
Answer: Why are tower speakers a big deal anyway? Well, for one, it brings together different types of speakers in one nifty package. It’s better sounding than shelf speakers as well.
A tower speaker has enough space to accommodate different drivers and delivers a wide frequency range. You get clear highs and midrange frequencies while also enjoying booming bass. And because it’s all there in the cabinet, you don’t have to deal with too many cables and wires.
Tower speakers also have better audio quality than bookshelf speakers because it has the space for bigger drivers. There are many things that the manufacturer can do about the design of the cabinet.
Lastly, your tower speakers also double as an eye-catching decoration no matter where you put it. You know, have a selection of tower speakers in different shapes, sizes, and finishes.
Want to add a minimalistic or futuristic touch to your living room? There are tower speakers in a glossy white finish. You can even get wood or wood-like finishes for your tower speakers if you’re looking for a classic look.
Should You Buy an SVS Ultra Tower Speaker?
The SVS Ultra Tower are formidable speakers that have excellent sound quality. It’s no a surprise that these speakers deliver earth-shaking bass that thumps at the right times. These speakers work rather well as a standalone speaker or as part of your home theater system. At its price range, it’s well worth the money.
However, if you find the treble in the SVS Ultra Tower lacking, you can check out the Aperion Audio Verus III. This speaker doesn’t only deliver clear highs and excellent overall sound quality, but it comes in a gorgeous cabinet that helps it stand out no matter where you put it.
The Ultra Tower Speaker delivers a deep and detailed soundstage with incredible resolution, absolute transparency, and amazingly rich and articulated bass - outperforming other brands costing two and three times their price.
If you are looking for something that offers Dolby Atmos, then the Definitive Technology BP-9060 Tower Speaker may be a better choice.
Like the SVS Ultra Tower, these speakers shine when it comes to bass with their built-in subwoofers and amplifier. These higher-end speakers also don’t drop the ball when it comes to the midrange and high frequencies.
All of these speakers are under the $1,000 and above category. If you’re not keen on spending that much on a tower speaker, then you should consider the Polk Audio T50.
The T50 gives you excellent sound and has a wide frequency range of 38 hertz to 24 kilohertz without the other speakers’ hefty price tag.