SVS SB13 Ultra Review

As an audiophile, I've come to relate the size, weight, and cost of a subwoofer as quick'n'dirty marks of its quality. The subwoofers that have worked best in my enormous listening room—the Velodyne ULD-18 and DD-18+, Muse Model 18, REL Studio III, JL Audio Fathom f113, and Revel Sub30—each gauge in excess of 130 lbs and cost more than $2500. With a portion of my reference accounts, every one of them have accomplished what Robert Harley portrayed in the April 1991 issue of Stereophile as the objectives of a quality subwoofer: "consistent joining, speed, no bulge, and mind blowing bass augmentation." Yet are back-busting weight, unmanageable size, and nosebleed cost fundamental to accomplishing those objectives?

SV Sound doesn't think so. Their fixed, self-fueled SVS SB13 Ultra subwoofer weighs under 100 lbs, yet flaunts a 3600W pinnacle enhancer. SVS sells this model straightforwardly through their site and offers purchasers a 45-day, in-home time for testing, with cash returned in full assuming that the sub doesn't work out. SVS's site has visit includes, and gives Merlin, a subwoofer-arrangement wizard. Type for the sake of your fundamental speakers, and Merlin suggests the "SVS subwoofer that gives the best match, including the specific settings expected to streamline the sub's sound."

Fascinated by SVS's methodology, I seized a proposal by Nicholas Brown, SVS's PR delegate, to survey the SVS SB13 Ultra.

The SVS SB13 Ultra Review

. . . is an astonishingly reduced, fixed box subwoofer. A 17.4" block, it's 3.6" more limited, 3.1" smaller, 10.4" shallower, 63 lbs lighter, and $400 more affordable than the ported rendition, the PB13-Ultra, which I investigated in the August 2008 issue.

Estimations show the ported PB13-Ultra has the more extented profound bass reaction, yet SVS's Mark Mason noticed that the fixed SVS SB13 Ultra can exploit room support of the exceptionally low frequencies; the ported form should utilize a precarious subsonic channel to try not to overdrive its woofer underneath the port tuning recurrence.

The SVS SB13 Ultra has a solitary, front-terminating 13.5" drive-unit. An exclusively tooled, pass on cast aluminum bin that holds the light, inflexible Rohacell-composite cone with double straight roll insects and a sewed, allegorical encompass with enormous outing. The engine, advanced with limited component examination (FEA), comprises of a bifilar-injury, level wire, eight-layer aluminum voice curl 3" in width, and a polyimide-impregnated fiberglass previous with a custom hole expansion plate to expand its straight stroke, for lower mutilation. The attractive field is made by double Genox 8H/Y-35 ferrite magnets, and the post vent is curiously large, for more prominent cooling. These parts are arranged in an "overhung" plan that broadens the voice-curl past the hole on one or the other side of the shaft piece, to improve its proficiency in a moderate size fixed arrangement. When played without limiters, channels, or adjustment, the driver's low inductance stretches out its recurrence reaction to 300Hz. Its manual expresses that it utilizes a "profoundly progressed and modern Digital Signal Processor (DSP) . . . to accomplish the objective recurrence reaction," and "highlights a recurrence subordinate limiter/blower calculation with movable assault/delivery and pressure boundaries."

The SVS SVS SB13 Ultra is fueled by an implicit Sledge STA-1000D class-D intensifier with a result of 1000W RMS (3600W pinnacle dynamic). Including MOSFET yield gadgets and a switch-mode power supply, the Sledge is more modest, all the more remarkable, and more proficient than the 750W Switched Hybrid (class-A/B, class-D) amp utilized in the PB13-Ultra. Autostart and Green backup modes switch the amp on rapidly when a sign shows up at the info terminals.

Mark Mason let me know that, utilizing the CEA 2010 standard 31Hz sign in a 2pi climate with an amplifier set at 2m, at sound-pressure levels (SPLs) with under 10% complete consonant mutilation (THD), the SB13-Ultra's most extreme pinnacle acoustic result was 111.4dB, as contrasted and the 118.9dB guaranteed for the PB13-Ultra.

Worked on Controls

While the SVS SB13 Ultra doesn't accompany a controller, the UI comprises of a little, back board LCD screen and a solitary control handle, which SVS calls the Integrated Function Controller (IFC). Turning the handle looks through eight arrangement and control works, one by one showed on the LCD. Push the IFC once to choose a capacity, then, at that point, go it to look through the submenus. Immediately push it twice (double tapped) to get back to the high level menu. The submenus include: various high-and low-pass hybrid corner-recurrence settings somewhere in the range of 31 and 125Hz, in addition to two distinctive channel slants (12 or 24dB/octave); stage movable from 0° to 180° in augmentations of 15°; high-pass defer persistently factor from 1 to 10 milliseconds, to adjust in time the results of the satellite speakers and sub; three room-remuneration channels (40Hz for rooms of under 1400 cubic feet, 31Hz for rooms of 1400–2400ft3, and 25Hz for rooms more prominent than 2400ft3 (6 or 12dB/octave); two parametric equalizer (PEQ) groups offering 13 diverse focus frequencies somewhere in the range of 31 and 125Hz; and nine unique Q esteems, from 2.0 to 14.4, for decreasing the biggest and broadest room-mode tops.

The IFC cleans up the SB13-Ultra's back board, leaving as it were: the unequal (RCA) and adjusted (XLR) information sources and results for the right and left channels; a switch for choosing line or high voltage level; a power switch; and an IEC jack for the separable power rope.

Room, Setup, Measurement

I've utilized a similar listening space for more than 20 years. Estimating 25' long by 13' wide by 12' high, it encases a volume of 3900 cubic feet. The left divider takes care of an enormous straight window by Hunter Douglas texture conceals. Under the strong oak floor is an incomplete storm cellar. Two region mats cover the vast majority of the floor, including the space between the listening seat and my Quad ESL-989 speakers. Albeit enormous, the room's inadequate goods permit these electrostatic boards to create pinnacles of 90dB SPL at my listening seat. Through a 8' by 4' entryway, the back of the room opens into a 25' by 15' kitchen.

The absolute first subwoofer I audited utilizing this room was Velodyne's ULD-18, for the October 1989 issue. Going with a couple of Quad ESL-63 electrostatics, the ULD-18 did best when set in a corner, and I utilized similar situations for this survey. My Quad ESL-989s stood 6' 8" separated at their inward edges, the left speaker 18" from the left divider, the right speaker 18" from the underlying divider unit on the right, and the two of them 5' 5" from the front divider. The SVS SB13 Ultra was in a front corner, 3' behind the right-channel Quad. My listening seat was 7' 8" from the Quads' front bewilders, and 10' 8" from the front of the SVS SB13 Ultra.

Setting up, adjusting, and incorporating a SVS SB13 Ultra into a sound framework is all around portrayed in the plainly composed, 34-page manual, which suggests that the sub's room reaction be upgraded either a RadioShack Sound Level Meter and Microsoft Excel, or the Avia II: Guide to Home Theater test DVD (Ovation B19485, $44).

Since I didn't have A/V collector however which to play Avia II, I utilized my Studio Six iTestMic, an expert grade test and estimation receiver for the iPhone 4 and iPad. The mike plugs straightforwardly into the iPhone's 30-pin connector, and auto-adjusts while drawing almost no power from the telephone. It's undeniably more exact than the iPhone's own mike for precisely testing and setting up subwoofers, just as for estimating commotion levels, and sound levels up to 120dB. Studio Six's AudioTools application runs the iTestMic, stores the information on the iPhone, and breaks down and charts its estimations. For test tones, I played, on my Bryston BCD-1 CD player, an advanced record of uncorrelated pink commotion provided by Kevin Voecks, of Revel speakers.

To start with, I ran the preamplifier yield links straightforwardly to a couple of Theta Digital Prometheus monoblocks, to run the Quads full reach. Utilizing AudioTools' Real Time Analyzer (RTA), their in-room recurrence reaction estimated 25Hz–20kHz (fig.1). This diagram showed room-mode tops at 80 and 40Hz, yet the reaction tumbled off underneath 40Hz by 15dB at 25Hz.

I disengaged the Quads, joined the preamplifier's result links to the SVS's bits of feedbacks, and set the sub's result playing pink clamor by turning the IFC handle until AudioTools' SPL module enlisted 75dB at my listening seat. I then, at that point, ran adjusted interconnects from the sub's high-pass results to the Theta speakers, and set the high-and low-pass channel corner frequencies to the suggested 63Hz with 24dB/octave slants. I betrayed and changed the sub's result to match the Quads' acoustic result until the iTestMic RTA histogram bars were level at 100 and 40Hz. That finished the underlying alignment and change of the framework.

The absolute first subwoofer I investigated utilizing this room was Velodyne's ULD-18, for the October 1989 issue. Going with a couple of Quad ESL-63 electrostatics, the ULD-18 did best when put in a corner, and I utilized similar situations for this audit. My Quad ESL-989s stood 6' 8" separated at their internal edges, the left speaker 18" from the left divider, the right speaker 18" from the inherent divider unit on the right, and the two of them 5' 5" from the front divider. The SVS SB13 Ultra was in a front corner, 3' behind the right-channel Quad. My listening seat was 7' 8" from the Quads' front confuses, and 10' 8" from the front of the SVS SB13 Ultra.

Setting up, adjusting, and incorporating a SVS SB13 Ultra into a sound framework is all around portrayed in the plainly composed, 34-page manual, which suggests that the sub's room reaction be enhanced either a RadioShack Sound Level Meter and Microsoft Excel, or the Avia II: Guide to Home Theater test DVD (Ovation B19485, $44).

Since I didn't have A/V recipient however which to play Avia II, I utilized my Studio Six iTestMic, an expert grade test and estimation receiver for the iPhone 4 and iPad. The mike plugs straightforwardly into the iPhone's 30-pin connector, and auto-adjusts while drawing almost no power from the telephone. It's undeniably more exact than the iPhone's own mike for precisely testing and setting up subwoofers, just as for estimating commotion levels, and sound levels up to 120dB. Studio Six's AudioTools application runs the iTestMic, stores the information on the iPhone, and examines and diagrams its estimations. For test tones, I played, on my Bryston BCD-1 CD player, a computerized record of uncorrelated pink commotion provided by Kevin Voecks, of Revel speakers.

In the first place, I ran the preamplifier yield links straightforwardly to a couple of Theta Digital Prometheus monoblocks, to run the Quads full reach. Utilizing AudioTools' Real Time Analyzer (RTA), their in-room recurrence reaction estimated 25Hz–20kHz (fig.1). This chart showed room-mode tops at 80 and 40Hz, however the reaction tumbled off beneath 40Hz by 15dB at 25Hz.

I disengaged the Quads, connected the preamplifier's result links to the SVS's bits of feedbacks, and set the sub's result playing pink commotion by turning the IFC handle until AudioTools' SPL module enrolled 75dB at my listening seat. I then, at that point, ran adjusted interconnects from the sub's high-pass results to the Theta speakers, and set the high-and low-pass channel corner frequencies to the suggested 63Hz with 24dB/octave inclines. I betrayed and changed the sub's result to match the Quads' acoustic result until the iTestMic RTA histogram bars were level at 100 and 40Hz. That finished the underlying alignment and change of the framework