SVS PC13-Ultra
The PC13-Ultra we’re reviewing here is the top-of-the-line model of the active cylinder subwoofer range. An active subwoofer has a built-in amplifier, a passive doesn’t. 99% of all subwoofers designed for home cinema are active. All SVSound cylinder models have the same diameter: 42 cm. Only the height is different according to the model and the lowest frequency you want to be able to reproduce. How higher the cylinder, how deeper the bass. The PC13-Ultra is 119 cm high and can reproduce frequencies even below 10 Hz. Your listening room will have to be large enough to do that justice.
It also depends on which main speakers one has. If the sub is configured for deep bass (more ports sealed), he can get less loud. How louder you configure the sub, how less deep it can go. Don’t be mistaken: even with all the ports sealed, it can deliver quite a few decibels thanks to its massive 1 kW amplifier.
With a height of more than one meter, you won’t be able to hide this PC13-Ultra subwoofer from view. Since our ears are less or not at all directional sensitive for low frequcncies below 100 Hz, you can place a subwoofer almost anywhere in your room. Behind the couch or a seat is certainly possible. The PC13-Ultra derives its name from the special 13 inch (34 cm) woofer driver that’s built into the bottom of the cylinder. Its cone can move across several centimeters in order to displace a maximum amount of air. Yet, the cone is constructed very rigidly to allow it to play real notes and not just blow air like cheap subs do. The SVSound subwoofer stands on firm ‘legs’ and below them, a thick and solid base plate is mounted. The woofer radiates sound towards that base plate into the room and not towards your floor. That means, the sub can always deliver the same bass performance, no matter if it stands on a tile floor, wood parquet or a carpet. That’s the kind of thinking you only get with SVSound and not very often with other subwoofer brands. The PC-Ultra is powered by a class D amplifier of 1000 W of the American brand Sledge.
Controls and connections
Integrated into the sub is a ‘bass egalisation control’, comparable to an extended tone control especially for the low frequencies. With it, you can eliminate unwanted bass peaks in your room. Unfortunately, the subwoofer isn’t equipped with a remote control to fine-tune it from your listening seat. Nor is there an automated egalisation or calibration by means of a microphone. If you know that the Danish brand Eltax sells a very small and very cheap subwoofer of less than 200 euroes which does have a remote control for its adjustment, we think that SVSound could at least provide the same and so we’re a bit disappointed about that.
SVSound features an LCD panel with just one operating knob: you turn it to select menu items and you press it to select such an item.
In terms of connections you can choose between RCA or XLR connectors. RCA connectors are typical for most home audio equipment while XLR is more common with professional audio or high-end hifi of the more expensive kind. There is both an input and an output and they can be used in mono as well as in stereo. With these, you can connect the output of a common stereo preamplifier without any support for a sub to the PC13-Ultra and then another interlink to your stereo power amplifier. The PC13-Ultra then acts as an external crossover filter, keeping al the low basses for itself so your regular power amplifier and speakers don’t have to reproduce them, thus alleviating them from that burden. You can understand that this sub is not exactly scrawny: it’s a big barrel and it weights 41 kg. With the subwoofer, SVSound supplies three foam plugs. The PC13-Ultra has three open ports on top and depending on how low versus how loud you want to go, you can plug none, one, two or even all three of the ports. You need to alter the subwoofer’s configuration settings via the LCD control panel at its back so that the setting matches the number of ports you have plugged. The PC13-Ultra has a top cover composed of a metal mesh or grid. You can remove that cover to reach the three ports. The cover has a magnetic seal.
