S
VS is a sma l l but growi n g
direct-to-Web speaker manu-
facturer in the unlikely loca-
tion of Youngstown, Ohio. (I
say “unlikely” because I’m an Eastern
Snob, and we expect speaker makers to
take root in places like Boston or Balti-
more.) The company first earned its colors
with highly affordable subwoofers that
outperformed most anything in their
class. But SVS has been energetically pok-
ing up into the remaining eight octaves of
sound for several years now with high-
value bookshelf-speaker designs.
SVS is accelerating this trend with
its newest (and highest-priced) lineup
to date, which consists of the MTS-01
towers, MCS-01 center, and MBS-01 sur-
rounds. While the MBS-01s are two-way
designs, the tower and center models are
both “two-and-a-half ways,” in which
one woofer rolls off above the bottom few
octaves while the other woofer’s range
extends all the way up to the tweeter.
Speaking of tweeters, SVS makes a
pretty big deal about the one that’s used in
all three models. It’s a new soft-dome unit
from Denmark’s Scanspeak, and its lead-
ing-edge features include the use of an
array of six small magnets in place of the
single large one found in most tweeters.
This opens up the air movement, which is
said to reduce unwanted reflections.
The MTS line’s cabinet design is
strictly conventional. This is the kind of
construction that was standard 30 or 40
years ago, with solid, well-braced enclo-
sures made from heavy wood-composite
panels. Though biggish and boxy, these
speakers are nonetheless handsome,
nicely finished in real wood veneers and
constructed with obvious care. The speak-
ers also have some contemporary touches,
like a cunning grille arrangement held in
place by invisible magnets.
SVS rounded out the system by sending
its flagship subwoofer, the PB-13 Ultra —
and I still haven’t forgiven them. Uncrating
and moving this 150-pound behemoth —
literally the size of a small four-burner
range — was no light undertaking. But
the results were worth the effort.
SETUP
I unpacked the boxes, muscled the speak-
ers into place, and connected them. All
three MTS models feature dual-linked
multiway terminals and come with both
soft- and hard-cone feet.
Each speaker has a tweeter-level switch
with 0 and –3-dB settings, which I left at
–3 for a subtle but noticeable reduction in
treble energy. Each one also comes with a
cylindrical soft-foam “bung” for plugging
each cabinet port so you can convert the
speaker design from bass-reflex (vented)
to more-or-less sealed. Since the MTS-
01 and the MCS-01 both have dual ports,
you can re-tune them by leaving one port
plugged and one open.
I spent quite a bit of time experiment-
ing with the various bunging combina-
tions, and found that each one yielded a
meaningful difference. (SVS obligingly
graphs several examples in the owner’s
manuals.) To cut a long story short: My
room has a modest but well-established
50-Hz rise, so when the tower speakers
were running full-range, they sounded
tighter and more transparent when fully
bunged. Meanwhile, the center speaker
best matched its mates when single-
bunged. Bunging really didn’t matter with
the MBS-01 surrounds since the signal to
those speakers was crossed over to limit
bass reproduction.
MUSIC & MOVIE PERFORMANCE
I keep two different two-way speaker
pairs on hand as sonic reference points.
One pair sounds bright, while the other
is subtly warmer. Auditioned full-range
in stereo, the SVS MTS-01 towers split
the difference between those two sounds
with wonderful precision, being almost
perfectly neutral on the warm-to-cool
Daniel Kumin
test reports
PHOTO BY TONY CORDOZA
–
+
Snapshot
These speakers might be big and
slightly old-school-looking, but given
their powerful, superbly neutral full-
range sound, who cares?
Plus
:: Neutral, near-full-range towers
:: Awesome subwoofer
:: Solid center-speaker performance
Minus
:: Big (especially the sub!)
:: A bit old-fashioned-looking
The Short Form
Price $4,400
MTS home theater speaker system
SVS
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ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM
soundandvisionmag.com OCTOBER 2008
(24 pages)
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