SVS Officially Makes Prime Pinnacle Available for Purchase, Preps for AXPONA 2019

SVS Officially Makes Prime Pinnacle Available for Purchase, Preps for AXPONA 2019​

(April 2, 2019) Proving it’s no fool, SVS waited until the second day of April to officially unleash its gorgeous brand-new speaker design: Prime Pinnacle. Slotted between the company’s affordable Prime Tower and flagship Ultra Tower, Prime Pinnacle carries a price tag of $799 or $899 (each) with free shipping and the company’s ridiculously generous 45 day risk-free in-home trial period.

Pinnacle was both officially and unofficially revealed at CES 2019, where the company found itself demoing the speaker for attendees and press while hoping to keep full information about the new design contained within the company’s Venetian suite. Alas, it didn’t take long for that strategy to break, as the Internet flexed its muscle.

This speaker is exciting on a number of levels. First off, it truly appears to offer a great balance of performance for its price, allowing those that aren’t quite ready to spend two grand on mains to still gain access to high quality components and sound. According to SVS, much of the design emphasis was to replicate the Ultra Tower’s sonic flavor using a smaller, more room-friendly, cabinet. According to Gary Yacoubian (President, SVS): “The reality is, we spent more time voicing Prime Pinnacle than any speaker in SVS history so it would be equally suited for the demands of discerning audiophiles and hardcore home theater fans.” And from the brief demo I heard at CES, SVS definitely has achieved a remarkable sounding speaker.

Secondarily, the speaker really looks the part of quality. Its cabinet (Black Ash or Piano Gloss Black, 41.1” x 8” x 13.9”, 57.1 lbs) sports sharp lines that follow an appropriate blend of the company’s other tower options. And the speaker’s seductive driver array, which consists of a single composite glass-fiber cone 5.25-inch midrange, three 6.5-inch woofers, and a 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter, oozes physical quality.

Internally, SVS engineers designed separate ported sub-enclosures for the speaker’s trio of woofers, each specifically tuned for a smooth transition through mid-range frequencies. The tuning is further enhanced by the company’s SoundMatch 3-Way crossover, which insures seamless transitions through the frequency spectrum. The result is an “expansive soundstage” loaded with precision, anchored by bass performance that natively extends down through 29Hz.

SVS is currently gearing up to bring its new Pinnacle creation to AXPONA 2019, where the company plans to show off the speaker’s capabilities along with its 3000 Series of subs (and more). If you’re heading to the show, definitely put room 604 on your hit list and pay SVS a visit! And if you believe the speaker deserves a spot in your home, click here for online ordering information.


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[BadJRT]

I can't wait to hear some reviews. (as I still haven't purchased my system yet) I hope some or at least one of you guys who run this site get a very early shot. I'm a little surprised the piano black will be just $200 less than the same finish in the Ultra. I'm not at all saying they're over priced or that they're not worth it, I'm just making a marketing observation. Makes me wonder if they plan to bump the Ultra up a notch in the future?

 

[Todd Anderson]

I had a similar reaction to the pricing. Ultimately, you can save $200 - $400 based on which finish you choose, while the Prime Towers save you $800 - $1000. I guess that $800-$1000 price gap doesn’t leave a tremendous amount of wiggle room for middle pricing that looks radically different.

At the end of the day, SVS now offers three solid Tower options. Great to see their offerings expand.

 

[BadJRT]

I'm going to be really interested in how these do in regards to performance. I like the three 6.5" arrangement, as in theory I think it's well suited for the way I'd usually be running my setup, which is in a 2.2 for music. I know you and I had this type of discussion before, (somewhere in here) in regards to matching subs with towers and alleviating some of the excursion the tower woofers would endure by high passing and (maybe) plugging ports therefore letting dual sealed subs handle the lowest Hz's. I'm allowing close to $3k for towers but would love to get away with spending less. I'm now waiting on these SVS Pinnacle's and Chane L7's (if they actually come out before mid summer), otherwise I'll end up with one of the other two I had it narrowed down to.

I hope these wow the critics, as I'd love to spend only 16 or 1800 on towers and do a little more with Atmos or better surrounds than I'm planning at this point. I suppose an Ultra center would be best suited for these, as I wouldn't think they'd try to split the middle of their center channel lineup with a Pinnacle center?

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm curious too. My theater room is still shut down and I'm not sure when it will be back up. But, will - hopefully - snag a pair for review at some point.

I do remember that discussion. And these towers (for music) look like they'll have everything you need to enjoy music with good bass sans subs. But, as you point out, we really won't know until folks get ahold of them and put them through their paces.

I believe the Ultra and Prime series have similar voicing, as to allow you to mix and match speakers. So you could potentially go Ultra Center with them. OR you could put three of these puppies in your front soundstage! (if you have the room).

Have you looked at GoldenEar? If you're considering Chanes, GoldenEar is another brand that offers an AMT alternative. Although, both Chane and GoldenEar offer what I consider to be a fairly substantial difference in voicing. The SVS has that crisper upper end (which my ears really like), while GoldenEar and Chane are both slightly laidback in that region. I really like the GoldenEar sound... they make killer speakers, too. Obviously, as an SVS owner, I'm a big fan of what they're doing.

I think I may have mentioned this before... but I think the Ultra Bookshelf really throws an amazingly composed and sharp soundstage flowing with detail. If you're mainly looking for stereo use, I might be inclined to say get some stands, and try the bookshelf model... perhaps pair it with a sealed sub.

 

[BadJRT]

I looked briefly at Goldenear and I'm going to take a closer look but not so sold on the tweeters they use. I'd have to hear them. As for the crisp upper end you mentioned, I will be looking for the same and if the new line of Chane's I mentioned have a laid back high end, I will most likely be crossing them off my list. I'm a welder in a structural fabrication and rigging shop. It's always very quiet and reminds me of a library. <------ extreme sarcasm. The last thing I want are laid back highs but I'm hoping these new Chane L7's with a ring dome tweeter (different than the Planar in their other speakers) will fill the bill. Not to mention I'm very curious how these sealed box L7's w/ four 6.5" woofers are going to perform. They have me so intrigued that I'm going to wait until they come out, before deciding what speaker I'm going to go with. But as I said, laid back highs will be a deal breaker and those SVS Pinnacles will be looking pretty sweet, as I suspect they're going to test/review very well. Axiom M100's are another one I can't seem to get away from. I had a pair of Axiom's about 10 years ago and really liked them. Those M100's get great reviews and the dual tweeters won't leave my fabrication shop ears hanging.

As I said before, those SVS Pinnacles could save me a little money and allow me to put a few dollars in another part of my system.

You mentioned book shelf speakers... I'm not sure about those and higher SPL's. I'd have to hear some demo's. My mains will also be part of an HT system and as I'd rather gear it for music, I still want it to perform well with movies and concerts. I'm very seriously considering two sealed Seaton HP submersives, so I want mains that will be sure to keep up.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Anyone spend any time with these at AXPONA?

 

[Jeff Thornock]

Anyone spend any time with these at AXPONA?

Like many here, I was waiting not so patiently for some professional reviews on the new Pinnacles. However, when I melted the crossovers in my old faithful Def Tech BP 7004s I made the decision to move my SVS Ultra Towers from the theater room up to the 2 channel music duty and pull the trigger on a set of Pinnacles to fill the empty holes in the theater room. Since I’m running dual SVS SB16 Ultra subs in the theater room anyway, the bass capable Ultra Towers seemed a little under utilized in theater duty.

The Pinnacles showed up a couple weeks ago and rather than shuffle them straight to the theater room I couldn’t help myself, I had to spend some time with them in 2 channel configuration connected to my Peachtree Nova 300. I love the Peachtree and it brought amazing new life to the Def Techs, as well as ending their life one especially enthusiastic night when I got carried away with the volume knob!
I disconnected the Ultras and slid the new Pinnacles into place on both sides of the Peachtree. Not having any reference information to go on, with exception of SVS’s press release information and a great respect for the folks at SVS, my expectations were a blank sheet. I ran the Pinnacles through the paces with some of my favorite cuts from a variety of music styles and stood there in the sweet spot with a huge smile on my face! The Pinnacles sounded fantastic right out of the box with no play-in time at all! The base is tight and deep, surprisingly deep with the right source music, especially considering they are only 6.5” drivers! The midrange imaging is exceptional with crystal clear voicing and the sound stage is huge! I’ve never heard the Prime Towers in person, but have read some reports of tweeters that can be harsh and fatiguing, so I was prepared to hear some of that from the Pinnacles. I’m happy to report that the Pinnacle tweeters had no hint of harshness and are very pleasing to the ear. After an hour of listening to different music, often a reference and near reference levels, I had no fatigue at all.
I love the Ultras and would still say they are 10% better in every way than the Pinnacles, but that’s just a testament to how good the Ultras are, not in any way a dis on the Pinnacles, because for a $1600/pair set of speakers, the Pinnacles are good...VERY GOOD! So good, that I really struggled
To move them to the theater room. I did move them, and in all honesty in theater duty with the Ultra Center, monster subs, and all the other 7.2.2 gear, I can’t even tell the Ultras are gone.
I’m no professional audio reviewer, but to my ears, the Pinnacles are a fantastic speaker that should bring a smile to even the most critical listener! I suspect, as with most quality speakers, they shine their brightest with a good clean power source like the Peachtree, but feed them some power and sit back and smile!

 

[Todd Anderson]

@Jeff Thornock

Great update. Honestly, I'm not surprised by your conclusions.... but it's great to get some solid listening impressions from the field, so to speak. I'm hoping to snag a pair of these for review later this year.

Voicing-wise, SVS claims that the Pinnacles match that of the Ultras. So, if your eyes like the tilt of the Ultras, they'll likely appreciate the Pinnacles as well. That also means they will blend perfectly with that Ultra Center (really smart on SVS's part to make these different lines interchangeable).

Would love to see your theater room get featured in the showcase!