Parts and measurements of the SVS Ultra bookshelf

[STRONGBADF1]

I've heard the tower version of the SVS Ultras a few years ago at an audio show. I thought they were pleasant sounding. I can only assume the tower version had similar treatment in the lower treble as seen in the Ultra bookshelves, but I don't know for certain.

Yes, I thought the same as we casually listened... they didn't do anything wrong but we didn't listen critically.

That was the DC show I met you and Steve at.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Your experience with the Ultras may have been at our GTG. Here is one view of the tower.

The bookshelf speakers were also present. I completely agree with your assessment, Swerd.

My recollection was that the little Ultras were quite pleasant with a touch of unevenness at the high end. I think Dennis and I may have had a brief conversation about the tweeters, later...by email. (He didn't attend that year.) So there was something noticed about them.

Hey RJ!

Those are the MTS-01's not the Ultras.

I still have my MTS's that I won in that raffle on here years ago...boy time flys... I'm off to look at potential new speakers.

 

[Tomorrow]

Hey RJ!

Those are the MTS-01's not the Ultras.

I still have my MTS's that I won in that raffle on here years ago...boy time flys... I'm off to look at potential new speakers.

Hahaa...I guess once you get to my age, one speaker looks like another. Thanks SB1! You are, of course, correct. Bad Tomorrow. Bad.

 

[D Murphy]

Dennis, I know it depends on the goal of the speaker designer, ultimately... But for wider dispersion speakers (You know, like the ones I've kinda taken a liking too *blushes) at what point would you not worry about off axis response? (If at all.)
Looking at his graph, I see exactly what you are saying. What would that type of response sound like, if you can describe it?
Thanks!

It would depend on the room. If a reflection came in loud and clear that was caused by output at that angle, the sound might have an edge to it and sound a little thin,, and maybe imaging would be affected as well. But I'm not sure I've ever listened to a speaker with that large a peak off axis.

 

[Swerd]

Yes, I thought the same as we casually listened... they didn't do anything wrong but we didn't listen critically.

That was the DC show I met you and Steve at.

Right. I remember that. It was late on a Sunday, and we heard them among the last of anything that day.

I also remember Jim & Dennis saying it's usually more revealing of speakers to hear them earlier in the show. By Sunday, the people running the displays have learned what music to avoid playing on their speakers in the room they've been assigned.

 

[Swerd]

Thanks for the detective work. I was thrown off both my the cabinet and the tweeter, which isn't the same one Danny has been using in his budget line. I'm kind of surprised he published the horizontal off-axis plots. Even I would worry about the peak on the 40 degree measurement.

I'm confused. Is the peak on the 40° plot in the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers or the GR Research X-LS?

Here is a screen shot from the video of the SVS Ultras, showing on-axis (red) and 10° (green), 20° (orange), 30° (blue) and 40° (purple) off-axis.

And here is the X-LS plot. It shows peaks at about 2.5 kHz in both the 30° (green) and 40° (blue) curves.

 

[ryanosaur]

I'm confused. Is the peak on the 40° plot in the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers or the GR Research X-LS?

Here is a screen shot from the video of the SVS Ultras, showing on-axis (red) and 10° (green), 20° (orange), 30° (blue) and 40° (purple) off-axis.
View attachment 35138

And here is the X-LS plot. It shows peaks at about 2.5 kHz in both the 30° (green) and 40° (blue) curves.
View attachment 35139

The X-LS Off-Axis

 

[Jon AA]

I'm confused. Is the peak on the 40° plot in the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers or the GR Research X-LS?

I think he was talking about the GR Research. However, they both suffer from very poorly matched directivity between the woofer and tweeter.

The X-LS is flatter on-axis and the problem becomes apparent off-axis. The SVS has the dip on-axis which actually makes the off-axis curves better.

If you EQed the SVS to be flat on-axis, its off axis curves would resemble those from the X-LS. Neither way of doing it is good.

Edit: Just realized the issue with the SVS appears to be too high in frequency to simply be a woofer-tweeter mismatch. It may be an issue with the tweeter itself or some combination of the two.

 

[D Murphy]

Right on both counts. We were referring to the GR monitor's off-axis response, and the dip in the SVS response isn't caused by directivity issues. It was a deliberate voicing decision.

 

[carlthess40]

Hey RJ!

Those are the MTS-01's not the Ultras.

I still have my MTS's that I won in that raffle on here years ago...boy time flys... I'm off to look at potential new speakers.

Are you selling those? I ha e the bookshelf models of those and looking for the towers
Please
Message me
Thanks
Carl


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Swerd]

Dennis, I know it depends on the goal of the speaker designer, ultimately... But for wider dispersion speakers (You know, like the ones I've kinda taken a liking too *blushes) at what point would you not worry about off axis response? (If at all.)
Looking at his graph, I see exactly what you are saying. What would that type of response sound like, if you can describe it?

I've also "kinda taken a liking to "Dennis's way of voicing" (for lack of a better word) his speakers. And I've heard that same open widely dispersed sound in enough of his different designs, 2-ways and 3-ways, MT, MTM, and WMT to easily recognize his efforts. He's quite consistent about his designs.

I'll take a crack at verbally describing his designs. They almost always have Linkwitz/Riley type crossovers with 4th order acoustic roll-off curves. They have a flat frequency response across the crossover range(s), on-axis and as far off-axis as possible. No dips please! If you reverse the polarity of one driver of a pair in a crossover, and look at the resulting null, the slopes of the roll-off curves on either side of the null are as symmetrical as possible. Dennis works hard at achieving this and clearly thinks it's responsible for a superior sound. I cannot (and would not) argue with this, as I have never seen or heard one "voicing style" that works so well on so many different speakers.

I've also heard speakers designed by others that I also kind of like. They don't have the same sound as Dennis's designs, but they can sound pleasing. It's always interesting to see their FR measurements both on-axis & off-axis. If nothing else, it illustrates what I can live with.