Secrets Product Review
 

SVS SBS-01 5.1 Speaker System

Part III

November, 2005

John E. Johnson, Jr.

 

On the Bench

At 100 Hz and 100 dB, the woofer produced a little less than 4% THD. Small woofers do that. It's one of the reasons you should cross these speakers over to the subwoofer at a reasonably high frequency.

At 1 kHz, the woofer produced 1% THD.

The tweeter gave less than 0.5% THD at 10 kHz and 100 dB. There were only two harmonics, one at 20 kHz and the other at 30 kHz. It seems to be a very good component. I really like silk domes, as they sound smoother than metal ones, although they (silk) probably can't play quite as loud before breaking up.

The room response for one of the bookshelf speakers and the subwoofer was reasonably flat, with good output down to 20 Hz. There is no question that putting the 10" driver in a relatively large enclosure is big part of the deep response. The dip from 50 Hz to 30 Hz is caused by the room. Most rooms have a "suckout" like this. You can see that the peak at 20 Hz is at the same level as the upper part of the graph, e.g., at 1 kHz, so the subwoofer is easily capable of delivering bass at that frequency. See also the original review of this subwoofer, and look at the ground plane response.

I did not have the subwoofer volume turned up very high, so if you like more deep bass, you could just turn the volume control up. Using an EQ box or EQ functions on some of the newer SSPs and receivers could flatten the deep end response.

The impedance curve shows that the SBS-01 is nominally 8 ohms. The electrical phase stays primarily within ± 450.

Conclusions

What can I say about a system that, for $899, gives you everything except a high price? The SVS crew worked hard to build a good set of speakers, and they appear to have done the job right. At less than a kilobuck, you can't go wrong.

Note: The $899 price is a pre-order price, good through the end of December, 2005. After that, it goes to $999 for 5.1 and $1,149 for 7.1.

 

- John E. Johnson, Jr. -

© Copyright 2005 Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity

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