SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle

How many times have you been told by parents and teachers that everything successful must be built on a strong foundation?

It's true in music, where the low frequencies are the foundation the music rests on, like the basement framing a building. If you get that part wrong, where are you? Sitting in the mud, that's where. With no chance to address beauty in the midrange, texture and air above, or other tasty things.

Youngstown, Ohio-based loudspeaker manufacturer SVS made foundations its specialty, starting at the company's very beginning in 1998, when it started by designing subwoofers and only subwoofers. The company didn't start offering regular loudspeakers, with midranges and high frequencies, until 2012. Over time, SVS's high-value speakers got more ambitious until earlier this year, at AXPONA, it introduced its most ambitious loudspeaker yet, the full-range, three-way Ultra Evolution Pinnacle ($4999.98/pair).

SVS stands for Stimpson Vodhanel Sound, after the company's founders, Ron Stimpson and Tom Vodhanel; Tom, the chief designer, left the company in 2007; Ron, the CEO, sold the company in 2011.

"The joke in our industry is the road is littered with the bodies of subwoofer companies that tried to make speakers," Gary Yacoubian, SVS's current president and CEO, told me. "Smith Freeman came on board with others who are speaker designers as opposed to focused on subwoofers. It's been a journey, and the Ultra Evolution Pinnacles are the culmination of that thus far."

Currently, SVS offers 18 models of subwoofer and 20 models of loudspeaker. If the Stereophile Recommended Components list is any guide (and that is what it is meant to be), SVS is building on a strong foundation: The most recent list includes two SVS subwoofers in Class A and a third in Class B; the Prime Wireless Pro, an active loudspeaker, is also on the list. The Ultra Evolution speaker line includes seven models; the Pinnacle is the top.

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