SVS Prime Center Speaker (Premium Black Ash)

Basic Review Pros: Great build quality. Very heavy cabinet not prone to stray resonates within Still small enough to fit into most home theater cabinets Excellent highs with clear voices and reproduction of higher frequency sounds Cons The midrange driver is very, very "bright" meaning it stands out from the crowd and may require turning the level down at the receiver Detailed Review Update: After 15 or so movies through this speaker it has warmed up dramtically and sounds much better than it did when first out of the box. There are still a few voices or sounds within a certain spectrum that the mid range driver doesn't handle very well but overall this has been a very good addition to our home theater. It was definitely worth the money. I bought this speaker to replace/compare with a JBL ES25C. Buying speakers is a huge gamble as always and in my metro area there is no real option other than Best Buy to trial speaker sounds and their selection is limited. I was very happy with the JBL speaker but after purchasing an SVS subwoofer I was blown away by the performance and quality. I decided to see if their center speaker would be equally as exciting. As professional reviews note, the SVS prime speaker is very "bright" and sometimes a little too much so. We are using this speaker specifically for a surround sound setup and during the first film I had to turn it down as it was way too "in your face" for my taste. After the 4th film I noticed that it had calmed down a bit and I was able to return the speaker level to a neutral setting. I would suspect that this speaker, as with the JBL, will warm up a bit as time goes on. I spent a lot of time sitting in front of it and comparing its sound with the JBL. The SVS is more capable of hitting the clear highs and mid range sounds. I was not aware that I was missing so much of this with the JBL and went back through the Transformers Age of Extinction to see what exactly was missed. This is a very good movie for setting up speakers as it was shot in Atmos and fully utilizes every speaker at every level. I found that there were many sounds that had gone unnoticed with the JBL and were very prominent with the SVS. My family all commented that the SVS was much clearer and voices were more distinct than any other center speaker we've tried. My personal feel is that it is too "bright" right out of the box but seems to be calming down some as time goes on. I will update this review after a few months for anyone that is interested in long term performance. There was very little on the web about the SVS speakers so it truly was a very expensive gamble. We feel that it was worth it so far. Our room is 14' x 20' x 8' and everything is run from a Yamaha Aventage receiver. Is it worth the money? I would say yes but given that it didn't hit a home run right out of the box I gave it 4 stars. By the way a comment about SVS customer service. They are the absolute best! They are very responsive and always full of helpful information no matter what it is that you need. The service I received on the subwoofer was so good that I had no problem giving this Prime center a shot. They were right, they said it would out perform the JBL and it really does. And I was perfectly happy with the JBL.

Clean, crisp sound sound. Dialogue comes through clearly with solid bass. Substantial upgrade from Sony cs8 - easily superior in all ways. Can't wait to crank it up after a couple weeks breaking it in.

Great speaker. Losing my hearing as I get older, and I could not understand a lot of the dialog on my 2-channel JBL Stage center. I think the third channel did the trick. I can now here the dialogue clearly, no matter where I sit, and this one speaker has really elevated my entire surround setup. I got mine on sale on Black Friday. Incredible value.

Good detailed dialog. Warmer than klipsch 504s, which are quite bright. Has great sound distribution beyond 90° axis (better than the 504s. Matched well with 6.5" klipsch atmos towers. Would be nice to see the 2 ports in the front instead of back, but overall it's a solid speaker.

This center channel was part of my first foray into a home theater setup. While I was impressed with the sound quality, no matter where you sat in front of the TV, there was often this feeling of the sound/voices from the center channel coming from a small "point" under the TV. Basically it didn't sound very "full" like you'd get from your L/R speakers if played in stereo. Duh, it's one channel, of course it doesn't sound the same as stereo, right? Maybe I'm just picky about a system I spent several thousand dollars on. Well, I eventually upgraded to the SVS Ultra Evolution center channel, and the improvement, I'm sorry to report, was noticeable immediately. I say sorry to report because it costs 2x as much as this Prime Center. I guess the larger drivers of the Evolution really make for a more full sound. While voices only improved slightly, other sounds coming through the channel were richer and fuller, almost eliminating what was distracting about this Prime Center. I still think this is a great speaker, and is worthwhile especially on a budget. But as they say when buying this sort of thing, cry once. Just pay for the higher end product if it doesn't break your budget. FWIW, nobody else who listened to my setup could tell the difference between the two, so YMMV.

I didn't think a center could make such a big difference. I was wrong. Wow. Wow. I got a certified used at a great price and...WOW.

PRO(s) Beautiful Sounds great at both low and high volumes (watts) Well constructed Flawless finish AMAZING company CON(s) - There really are none Rear port limits placement The center channel is the most important channel in a surround system and this is a great center channel. I didn't have the $ for the Ultra which is definitely a better speaker but this will not disappoint. I have a very large listening area and this handles it effortlessly. It's also one of the most beautiful centers I've seen. I love to just look at it. I also would like to mention that the company is truly awesome! I've directly purchased from them and had to contact support and I always get right through and everyone is so helpful and friendly. SVS has earned my business many times over.

I fell in love with SVS when I got one of their subs a few years back so when I found myself struggling to hear dialogue on my surround sound system I turned to SVS for a new center channel speaker. I got it today and started putting it through its paces and so far I couldn’t be happier. The dialogue is much more crisp and clear and carries through the whole room without issue. Even when I cranked it to the point of pain, it didn’t struggle at all. I want to stay up all night playing movies just to get more! This is a phenomenal speaker that would outperform some double it’s cost.

Compre este Central como remplazo de un Yamaha NS-C200, en cuanto a los acabados puedo decir que los materiales son bastante buenos y la calidad se puede observar en los componentes. Sobre el sonido en música, no acostumbro utilizar todo el sistema para música, prefiero el sonido estéreo (Definitive Technology BP8) pero en las pocas pruebas que he realizado puedo comentar que varios instrumentos suenan increíblemente claros, sobre todo guitarras. Hablando de películas, el central hace mejor juego con mis bocinas frontales (Klipsch RF25), los efectos y las voces son mucho más claras, logrando un mejor ambiente. El único punto a tomar en consideración en que algunas voces puedes ser un poco más brillantes de lo normal, esto no por el central, lo he escuchado en otros centrales con tweeter metálico, en mi caso lo ajuste con el uso del EQ de mi Yamaha. Es mi segundo producto de SVS y me ha gustado bastante la calidad y el sonido.

Grande qualité de produit. Enceinte centrale ôt volumineuse.. Prix élevé.

Desde el primer momento que la escuchas se nota la gran diferencia que implica tener drivers dedicados para las distintas frecuencias. Hay una mejora inmediata en los diálogos y (en mi caso) he podido escuchar algunas cosas que no había notado con otras bocinas. No es un equipo barato pero sí es asequible y vale la pena cada peso pagado.

La excelente y, en ciertos casos, poco conocida reputación de las bocinas americanas SVS se puede apreciar a través de esta excelente bocina central, que si bien no es la serie 'ultra' (top of the line) fácilmente supera al promedio de bocinas de 'marca' que presumen mejores prestaciones. Claridad y detalle elevado, potente y delicada cuando necesita serlo, muy buen manejo de graves. Excelente producto de muy buenas prestaciones. Muy buena inversión.