Loudspeakers

Measured at the statutory 1m, the Ultra Evolution Pinnacle’s forward response shows a slight step at the point the 25mm tweeter takes over from the 135mm midrange at ~1.8kHz. The minor undulations that follow are picked up as cone modes [see CSD waterfall, Graph 2] and are responsible for the ±3.1dB response errors, respectively (all re. 200Hz-20kHz), although these are greatly exaggerated by the plastic grille [blue trace, Graph 1] which should be removed for ‘serious’ listening. Pair matching is an impressively tight 0.7dB (again, re. 200Hz-20kHz) while sensitivity matches SVS’s specification at 88.2dB at both 1kHz and also when averaged over 500Hz-8kHz.

The ultrasonic resonance of SVS’s alloy treble dome with its vapour-deposited ‘diamond-like’ coating is also clear at 28kHz (+12.5dB re. 1kHz), with a secondary mode at 40kHz [pink shaded area, Graph 1], but other brands have untreated metal domes with breakup modes pushed out to still higher frequency. At the other end of the scale, the ‘peaky’ alignment of those four 200mm woofers packs a thump at ~78Hz while the 30Hz port tuning helps serve up a low 32Hz bass extension (–6dB re. 200Hz), the output falling steeply thereafter [green shaded area, Graph 1]. This deep bass but – for the cabinet size and porting – modest sensitivity is achieved without punishing the partnering amplifier with a too harsh a load. In practice, its impedance lies above 4ohm from 160Hz-20kHz with a dip to 2.35ohm/86Hz suggesting a nominal 4ohm rating. The worse-case EPDR of 0.97ohm/74Hz is tough, but persists over a very narrow and, in all likelihood, programme-dependent band. PM