SVS has announced their new Prime Elevation Speakers, a single speaker versatile enough to be used for any speaker channel—including Dolby Atmos.
There’s nothing like immersive audio technologies such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Auro-3D. When done right, these object based surround sound offer the most incredible sound experience imaginable. If you haven’t heard them, you just don’t know what you’re missing.
Getting a proper setup, however, isn’t easy and along with most audio critics, SVS engineers didn’t believe existing solutions that relied on bouncing sounds off the ceiling are the best approach. We’ve heard up-firing speakers and they just aren’t a substitute for discrete speakers.
To that end, SVS has created the new SVS Prime Elevation speaker, which is an ingeniously-designed speaker that you can use for any speaker channel in your setup including height effects.
The secret of the Prime Elevation speaker is it’s slanted design. The speaker is built with the dynamics and refinement of a high end bookshelf speaker but offers incredibly flexible placement.
Since there is no sideways or upside down with the SVS Prime Elevation, the speaker also adapts to oddly shaped rooms, high ceilings and less than perfect placement locations for all the other speakers in a home theater as well. SVS says that the angled front baffle, refined acoustics, and proprietary mounting hardware enable clear, dynamic sound in room’s where ideal placement of front, center, side or rear surround, and/or LCR speakers is not possible. It is acoustically engineered to perform exceptionally well in any role and adapts seamlessly to any surround sound set-up, even in the most challenging rooms.
SVS says that you can use the Prime Elevation can be used in the following ways:
- Down-Firing Height Effects Speaker – Placed high on a side wall, the directly radiated sound is a vast improvement over compromised “ceiling bounce” or in-ceiling solutions
- Up or Down-Firing Front, LCR or Center Channel Speaker – Placed above or below the viewing area, directed at listener, when placement at ear level isn’t possible
- Side or Rear-Firing Surround Speaker – Placed on side wall for rear effects or a rear wall for side effects when optimal placement is not possible
Beyond versatility, the SVS Prime Elevation takes ease of installation to new heights with the included Multi-Angle Wall Bracket that the company says is patent pending. The Multi-Angle bracket allows you to easily and securely mount the speaker on the wall in any of four directions: up or down-firing, and side or rear-firing, depending on how it’s being used, to get the best performance from anywhere in the room.
It also features a universal mounting option with a ¼” 20TPI brass insert that works with many other kits. As a finishing touch, even the magnetic SVS logo on the front grille is adjustable to accommodate positioning.
“The SVS Prime Elevation is a product of vision and happenstance that was born when our engineers sought to invent the most realistic and immersive sounding height effects speaker possible,” said Gary Yacoubian, president, SVS. “When we decided to make it direct radiating, we thought, why not develop an incredibly versatile speaker that also delivers an awesome experience for the other home theater channels in rooms where perfect speaker placement isn’t possible.”
Though small in size, the Prime Elevation boasts big performance. It’s rated bandwidth is 55 Hz – 25 kHz (+/- 3dB). The SVS Prime Elevation features a sophisticated SoundMatch crossover that the company says seamlessly blends output from the light and efficient 1” aluminum dome tweeter and 4.5” polypropylene woofer. The optimized, angled front baffle affords the speaker its signature versatility and is designed with chamfers to reduce tweeter diffraction.
We can tell you first-hand from the review sample that SVS sent us to evaluate that the Prime Elevation speakers are built like tanks. The cabinet features a cast composite ABS and Glass Fiber woofer basket and acoustically inert enclosure to create a balanced speaker that works great for dialogue, action movie dynamics, dance music, vocals, sound effects and all other audio experiences.
Yacoubian continued, “Prime Elevation is an easy to install solution for audio fans who want the most immersive and exciting height effects experience possible, or for anyone who has an imperfect room but still wants an amazing sounding, immersive and uncompromised home theater experience.”
The great thing about this speaker’s versatility is that it’s sonically voiced to match with any of the company’s existing Prime or Ultra speakers and subwoofers.
The SVS Prime Elevation comes in three high quality, stunning finishes with a hand-painted satin baffle.
Pricing for Prime Elevation is $199.99 each for Premium Black Ash, and $249.99 each for Piano Gloss Black and Piano Gloss White. For more information on the Prime Elevation Series speakers, visit: www.svsound.com/products/prime-elevation
