Is there anything new in powered speakers? I can answer that question with a resounding yes! It comes in the form of the SVS Prime Wireless Pro Powered Speaker Pair. It’s an evolution of the preceding model from SVS, but it’s physically and electronically upgraded.

SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers

These speakers would work well in a small living room, a study, a bedroom, or anywhere really where a smaller, high-quality sound is desired.

If one looks at the list price of $899.99 it seems a lot to pay for even high-quality bookshelf speakers, but these are not just speakers. They are a complete Hi-Fi system with a variety of inputs, a 200-watt amplifier driving the pair, and the ability to stream High-Resolution audio wirelessly via Wi-Fi, Apple Airplay 2 for iPhones and iOS, and Chromecast for Android phones and other devices. It also supports Bluetooth and Spotify Connect and throws in an HDMI port so it can be used with a television.

SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers Front View

The SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers are a significant product that is going to tick off a lot of the boxes on an audiophile’s checklist.

Highlights

SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers Highlights

  • Very well-balanced sound in a speaker size friendly to almost any room.
  • Support for every wireless protocol, and control from a phone, tablet, or the included remote.
  • Front panel display (that can be turned off) telling you what’s playing or your selected input.
  • Very easy setup, with clear instructions.
  • Supports an external subwoofer.
  • The DTS Play-Fi app is not an asset. It’s complicated, with a bewildering user interface.
Introduction

SVS is most well known as a manufacturer of very high-quality subwoofers. Based in Youngstown, Ohio, the company rapidly expanded into high-quality speakers for audio-only and home theater applications. Over the years Secrets has reviewed subwoofers from SVS, most recently the SVS PB16-Ultra Subwoofer and the SVS 3000 Micro Subwoofer. The SVS products consistently garner excellent reviews and offer very good value for the money.

With this product, and a new digital streaming amp, the company has entered into the creation of products with complex electronics. I was interested to see how these powered speakers performed in my own home, with a variety of music from varied sources, and in both wired and wireless modes.

SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers frills removed

SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers Specifications
Frequency Response:

42Hz – 25kHz (±3 dB)

Active Speaker Cabinet Dimensions:

295mm (H) X 180mm (W) X 228mm (D)
11.61″ (H) X 7.09″ (W) X 8.96″ (D)

Passive Speaker Cabinet Dimensions:

295mm (H) X 180mm (W) X 225mm (D)
11.61″ (H) X 7.09″ (W) X 8.85″ (D)

Package Dimensions:

390mm (H) X 465mm (W) X 296mm (D)
15.35″ (H) X 18.31″ (W) X 11.73″ (D)

Weight:

Active Speaker Weight Unboxed: 12.3 lbs. (5.58kg)
Passive Speaker Weight Unboxed: 11.68 lbs. (5.3kg)
Packaged Weight System Pack: 28.0 lbs. (12.7kg)

Driver Specs:

1” Aluminum Dome Tweeter:
FEA-optimized diffuser for airy and unveiled presentation
Aluminum dome for exceptional transient response
5.25″ Mid-bass Driver:
Polypropylene cone for excellent stiffness/mass ratio and pistonic behavior
Aluminum shorting ring to reduce gap inductance, lower distortion, and enhance high-frequency response
Cast ABS-fiberglass composite basket ensures precision component alignment and excellent thermal transfer
Vented voice coil former minimizes air compression artifacts

Amplifier Specs:

Dual Class-D Power Amps for Discrete Driver Bi-amplification
200-watt (50-watt x 4) RMS Power
Digital controlled tweeter-to-woofer crossover: 2kHz (12dB/octave slope)

Speaker Cabinet Specs:

Finish Options: Piano Gloss Black and Piano Gloss White
2.36″ wide-flared rear-firing port
Protective cloth grille with pin/cup retention system
Elastomer stick-on bumper feet (adds 3mm to height)
Acoustically transparent and FEA-optimized grilles minimize diffraction
FEA-optimized cabinet and bracing eliminate resonances
Chamfered front baffle and flush-mounted drivers reduce edge diffraction and improved on-axis high-frequency response

Wireless Streaming Options:

DTS Play-Fi – Lossless 192kHz/24-bit via Critical Listening Mode over Wi-Fi
Apple Airplay 2 for iPhone and iOS Devices, Chromecast for Android phones and Devices: CD Quality
Bluetooth 5.0 with AAC and aptX
Spotify Connect

Input Specs:

HDMI audio input. Supports ARC and eARC
Left/Right RCA Input: Input Impedance: 20K
3.5mm Aux Input: Input Impedance: 20K
Toslink Optical Input: S/PDIF receiver works at a wide range of sampling frequencies up to 96kHz
Bluetooth 5.0 with AAC and aptX
6 front panel presets for one-touch access to music services and playlists
Ethernet
USB service port also for powering wireless accessories: e.g., Soundpath Wireless Audio Adapter

Output Specs:

Subwoofer Output: 2V MAX – Auto Detecting Low Pass Filter: Activates Low Pass Filter at 80Hz on the speakers when a subwoofer is detected.
Ethernet

General Specifications:

3.15” wide Front Panel OLED display: Displays Source, Artist Name, Song Title, Volume, and Rich metadata from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth audio sources
Switch Mode Power Supply: Auto Switching 100 – 120V / 220 – 240V, 50/60Hz
Fuse: 15A/250V
Detachable Power Cord
IR Remote control and 2 AAA batteries included
8 x Elastomer stick-on bumper feet included
Active-Passive Speaker Interconnect Cable: 3m / 10ft Included

Warranty:

Unconditional 2-Year Warranty

U.S. MSRP:

$899.99

Company:

SVS

SECRETS Tags:

Review, SVS, Prime Wireless Pro, powered speakers, streaming, wireless speakers, speakers reviews 2022, reviews 2022, powered speakers reviews 2022

Review

SVS has hit one out of the park here. As mentioned above, you can stream high-resolution audio wirelessly up to 24 bit/192kHz (something many other wireless systems don’t do) and the product offers multiple ways to accomplish your audio playback goals. It’s fair to say the system is completely agnostic about how you get audio to the system. A source can be as simple as plugging in a CD player to analog or digital inputs, or you can stream from a phone or tablet or a desktop computer via Bluetooth, Apple Airplay, or Google Chromecast, and network devices can be connected via ethernet. TVs are supported through HDMI with ARC or eARC. You can attach a subwoofer for extra bass, and control the system with smartphones, tablets, or even by voice. That’s a boatload of flexibility in one product.

SVS Prime HDMI

Unpacking & Set Up

The SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers came well-packed. Upon opening the first thing I saw was a quick start card. The directions were easy to follow, and my first step was to download the iOS version of the DTS Play-Fi app which got the system on my network and did a firmware update right away. The setup card said to expect a 10-minute update, and indeed, it was a 10-minute update. Along the way, my iPhone, and the front panel LCD of the right speaker displayed what was going on.

For many people, getting the system on your home network completes the basic setup. The DTS Play-Fi app offered logins of many streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, and Deezer, a total of 16 sources, and you can even link to a server on your network as a source.

You can also bypass the DTS Play-Fi app (a good thing in my view – more later) and stream directly from your mobile device if you have the appropriate app already set up. I have Tidal, so I did a lot of my listening that way.

I also have a Roon-based system, and Roon identified the SVS Prime Wireless Speakers, and a click added it to the Roon network. I could stream from Roon via AirPlay 2 or Chromecast.

As the Prime Wireless system is Roon friendly, not Roon Ready, I could not mix music playback between my Roon Ready devices and the SVS speakers, but that’s a limitation of the way Roon works. It would be nice if the SVS speakers were Roon Ready and thereby full players in the Roon ecosystem but streaming via Airplay or Chromecast worked just fine. Put simply, you can’t mix the two formats for multi-room synced streaming.

One nice feature that some users will like are the presets available from the speaker front panel and the remote. There are 6 custom presets for instant access to playlists, streaming music services, and more with a touch of a button.

SVS Prime Remote

Although the DTS Play-Fi app has a lot of features, after I used it to set up the system, I stopped using it. It’s overly complicated and required fresh sign-ins to music services I already had and could control directly from those services apps. I also used my Roon app on both my Mac laptop, iPhone, and iPad. I could call up music, easily create playlists, and control the volume. I’ve used the DTS Play-Fi app with other components I’ve tested. I’m not a fan.

Listening to the SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers

I first set up the system in my rather large living room. They were nicely balanced, and had plenty of power to fill the room, but were a bit bass shy as expected from such a relatively small enclosure in a large room. Still, I heard output to about 45 Hz. That’s consistent with the stated spec. High frequencies sounded good, but not smoothly extended the way a ribbon tweeter might sound. Still, I detected no harshness and found strings instruments, and percussion airy. The stereo image was good, and I could detect no hiss or electronic noise.

I listened from several sources. Roon, as stated, along with Tidal streaming, and I hooked up an Oppo CD player to play regular CDs and some SACDs I have on hand. Everything sounded just fine, but I wished I had a subwoofer hooked up. My larger room really needed it to fill in those lower octaves.

To make the review complete, I decided to bring the system into my master bedroom, currently occupied by KEF LS50 speakers. These are not powered speakers, and they are driven by a hefty Denon receiver.

I set up the SVS Prime Wireless Pro speakers as a standalone system, providing the amplification, DACS, and network connection, which in my case was Wi-Fi. With both the KEFs and the SVS speakers available at the same time, comparisons were easy to make. For some listening, I disconnected the KEFs and took them out of the room, so the woofers would not interact.

In my bedroom, less than half the size of my living room, the SVS Prime Wireless Pro system was a revelation. No subwoofer was needed here. The sound was room-filling, but the low end came alive in the smaller room. I thought the speakers were pretty much equal to the KEFS, which are more expensive and are simply speakers. That makes the SVS Prime Wireless Pro system with powerful amps, a variety of source options, and high-resolution playback an absolute bargain.

SVS Prime Lifestlye White

With critical listening, I thought the KEFs were just a bit smoother at the top end, barely discernible with strings and percussion, but the sound of the two systems is very close.

Here’s some of the music I listened to:

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams “Oboe Concertos with James MacMillan”

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Oboe Concertos with James MacMillan. This is a lovely recording of chamber music. The SVS system gave a lovely, 3-dimensional image and the strings and oboes sounded unrestrained.

Various

Various “Prometheus: The soundtrack”

Prometheus: The soundtrack to the Ridley Scott movie has some very low notes. They were passable in my living room but sounded really solid in my bedroom.

Various

Various “Tron Legacy: The film soundtrack”

Tron Legacy: The film soundtrack is electronic, and images very well on the SVS speakers. The track ‘Disc Wars’ is a great test of a speaker’s low-end and imaging. In the bedroom, it sounded great through the SVS Primes. In the big living room, as before, I felt the need for a subwoofer.

the Raven

Rebecca Pidgeon “the Raven”

Rebecca Pidgeon: the Raven. Acoustic music with a female vocalist. Instrument positions were spot on, and Ms. Pigeon sounded like she was in the room.

Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield “Return to Ommadawn”

Return to Ommadawn: Mike Oldfield with a modern revisit of this 1970s hit, with mainly acoustic instruments. It’s a good recording with a wide frequency range.

Conclusions

SVS Prime Back View

At $899.99 the SVS seems expensive for what appears to be a pair of bookshelf speakers. But in fact, the SVS PRIME WIRELESS PRO POWERED SPEAKERS are a complete, ready-to-run, high-resolution stereo system with amps, DACS, and streaming capabilities. Plus, you can run your own sources like a CD player or a phono (with a preamp) directly from the SVS system. It’s really quite a bargain for the quality of the sound. My un-amplified KEF LS50s cost more than the SVS Prime Wireless Pro.

Likes
  • Excellent sound quality.
  • Available in Glossy White or Black.
  • Ease of setup including quick firmware updates.
  • You can listen to any source, directly wired, over local Wi-Fi, or streaming over the internet.
  • The right speaker front panel display is a plus, and it can be turned off.
  • 100 watts output per speaker with excellent sounding class D amplifiers.
  • Setup is easy and very well thought out for non-techies.
Would Like To See
  • DTS Play-Fi is not a great app. SVS should write its own control software.
  • Option for other colored speaker grills
  • Cable connecting speakers should ship with a longer cable, although SVS does offer different lengths as an option.

The SVS Prime Wireless Pro Powered Speakers are an excellent sounding, full-featured complete system. Plug it in and there is nothing else to buy. You’ll need music sources, but you’ll already have that.

With various inputs on the right speaker’s back panel, you can access your wired or wireless network. You can plug in your source components, and even a TV using the HDMI port. As I reviewed this unit and listened carefully, I could think of many uses for this system around my home, putting it somewhere where I didn’t have any music or replacing some other system that wasn’t as good, like my office speakers. Without a subwoofer, I don’t think this system is designed for, or at its best, in a large room. But in an office, bedroom, or small family room, this system is hard to beat in sound quality.

In the right room, or with a subwoofer added, something like the SVS 3000 micro, you’d have a great system with minimal investment at this quality level. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find individual components of this quality that can beat the SVS Prime Wireless Pro Speakers at the price.