Prices listed in CA$ dollars unless otherwise noted.

SVS is a company almost exclusively known for its subwoofers. So I was surprised to learn that they also make speakers. Doing its Canadian debut in the Laliberté Électronique room at the Montreal show were the Ohio-based company’s Pinnacle Ultra Evolution speakers (US$ 5000/pr; Canadian price TBD).

The design had “time alignment” written all over it. The curved front baffle was intended to align all drivers on a vertical plane ensuring sound from each driver reaches your ears at the same time. Midrange drivers and woofers were positioned above and below the tweeter, which, if it works as intended, should make sound appear to emanate from a single point in front of the speaker.

So how was the sound? Was it as coherent as the design sheet promised? Absolutely. The two songs I heard in their room (“Temptation” by Diana Krall; “Liberty” by Anette Askvik) fulfilled that promise gloriously. Vocals were realistic and the instruments had colours that were thoroughly natural. The sound was filling the entire range of the frequency range spectrum, from top to bottom. The bass was especially impressive. No wonder, this is a company known for its well-built subwoofers and, when the sub is carefully integrated, it should deliver the bass as I heard it.

Except the sub wasn’t on when I was listening, which made the performance of the speakers even more impressive. 

The rest of the system included an SVS PB-16 subwoofer ($5500), which wasn’t playing during my visit, a class-AB, 240Wpc Accuphase E-5000 integrated amplifier ($19,999), a HiFi Rose RS150 network streamer/DAC ($6999), and cables by AudioQuest.