S-Series SBS-02 systems

Hot new custom perforated grills look as good as they sound on the new S-Series speakers

Back Order Special! Get your SBS-02 speakers now and get 10% off pre-order prices ... and receive new custom metal grills in August free! Also - receive a $50 SVS gift certificate for any pair or a $100 SVS gift certificate for a system (5.0/5.1, 7.0/7.1) of S-Series speakers for use with future SVS purchases (gift certificates issued when speakers ship).

Totally new look to go with an all new crossover, new drivers, new tuning. And sound as good grill on as grill off too.  The SBS-02 packages, all designed to pair with the SB12-NSD, PB10-NSD, new PB12-NSD or other high quality subwoofer, are virtually all new top to bottom.

Compact, and stylish new looks, built like proverbial tanks, articulate, smooth, and immensely powerful for any sort of audio, from two-channel classical, to full surround-sound, high-resolution, high-power, pop and rock.  These award-winning speakers come updated with new SVS ferro fluid cooled tweeters, SoftCap woofers and new crossovers from master speaker designer Phil Bamberg.

“…takes a commanding position between low-cost and silly-expensive…”

Ken Pohlmann , Sound and Vision Magazine

Looking at our outgoing S-Series frequency response charts gives you just a glimpse at our obsession with making sure your speaker produces what its fed, nothing more, nothing less.

We challenge you to find an affordable package with more features or sheer quality.  Multiple installation options, impeccable USA design, flexible package configurations, precision computer-designed components. 

We even provide a simple and effective tilt-capable base for your SCS-02 center channel *, allowing good alignment with your ears, no matter where it’s put. Of course the famous SCS-02 center is included in all but stereo pair 2.0 SCS-02(M) sets).  Package upgrades include optional floor stands and sturdy wall brackets or our fantastic new bi-pole surrounds, the SSS-02's.

Enhance any speaker package with SSS-02's surround speakers over standard SBS-02's for only $149 more per pair. Discount prices for a limited time only!

New SSS-02 speaker with grill off

With the SBS-02 speaker sets, we’ve put more content and engineering inside than ever before. Expect better imaging, better power handling, durability could scarecely be better for an audio product, but these are better still.  Push SBS-02's hard with any sort of audio program, any sort of amp.  Coupled to one of our subwoofers like the industry leading PB10-NSD , the new PB12-NSD or new Sealed Box subs, you’ll wonder who needs better speakers.

There are lots of speaker choices out there, but few as good, and virtually none better for the money. Sexy perforated metal grills join the line later in 2010 and are backward compatible!

Read more about SBS-02 below!

Don't take just our word about these speakers!

"...The strings were beautiful, brass clear and clean; the SVS speakers clearly have what it takes to satisfy sophisticated listeners."

Steve Guttenberg, c|net

SBS-02 System Series: Features

Removable Grill

OK, this "feature" seems pretty common at first blush.  It's true few quality speakers have grills that are not  removable these days.  So what’s the draw here with SVS speakers?  Well first, notice we took great pains to make sure the finest components are used at each step.  Instead of chintzy plastic “ball and socket” fittings, we use tempered and machined steel pins embedded in our grills, and matching soft rubber fittings to receive them.  No way you are going to snap off one of those when you remove the grill from your SBS-02 satellite/surround or SCS-02 main or center channel speakers.

And there’s more.  While it’d be easy to slap on a generic plastic or as we did in the past, a large edge, cut fiberboard grill wrapped with fabric, we dug deep and tooled up a whole new level of sonic accuracy and enhanced looks. Now strikingly different, the custom powder-coated steel mesh looks as good as it sounds. It's custom machined from fine perforated mesh steel, just for us.

Made from perforated steel mesh, built to extreme quality standards exclusively for us in Taiwan, where the best such parts in Asia are found. Pins are tapered and invisibly mated with and powder-coated. The tough finish strengthens the mesh and which complements the charcoal black speaker perfectly. Plus it's virtually impervious to dust and fingerprints. And sounds as good grill on as off. The old MDF and fabric grills SVS used never could measure this well.  What is rare at this price point is to get a speaker so well designed and decidedly not some turnkey package pulled off the shelf from some low cost provider.  Unbox any of the SCS-02(M) or SBS-02 speakers and you know, these are different than your typical "entry level" speakers out there. This is audiophile stuff, just priced factory direct for you.

Custom SVS BlackSilk™ tweeter and 6" SoftCap™ poly woofer

SVS didn’t invent the first woofer, we didn’t invent the first tweeter.  However, we are as capable as any OEM in the world to evaluate any “off the shelf” part critically on cost and performance. Yet performance guides us far more than cost ever does, quite the opposite from most OEMs.

 For the SBS-02 we took the widely praised high frequency performance of the S-Series a step higher with specially ferro-fluid cooled versions which allow even more power handling and clarity at the limit. The BlackSilk F2™ tweeter is a new specially run part done at higher cost just for the better high power performance needed in the tower. You won’t hear speakers, you’ll just hear the musical artist or movie soundtrack even at theater levels in most rooms. Seamless, effortless, enveloping are all terms you will hear people use to address how they work to immerse you in the action, or music.

The woofer is another example of taking the renown S-Series sound another step up on the SBS-02. The 6" black "poly" woofer was always durable and capable of swallowing gobs of power, but with the SBS-02 we fine-tuned high frequency blending into the new crossover and tweeter by using a special soft dome dust cap. Imaging, clarity and high power audio will rival loudspeakers many times the cost of these slim towers. Again, no shocker, the same team that captured Sound and Vision Magazine's coveted Editor's Choice award for the redesigned SVS M-Series speakers last year are the guys that made these new parts for the SBS-02 too. These are not speakers you expect to hear at less than $1,000 a pair, and the drivers are just part of the story.

Smooth and seamless braced cabinet

Rap these cabinets with your fist. Just be sure your knuckles are in good shape.  Here we spent countless hours to design and deliver a simple elegant design that didn’t sacrifice utility to aesthetics.  No origami-like corners, no unsightly seams, no faux wood vinyl.  Instead our simple texture finish was vacuum formed over stout hand-machined MDF cabinets (with internal CNC’d Superbrace™) so that no seams of any sort would be visible.  Of course they match perfectly the trend-setting subwoofers like the SVS PB10-NSD and new PB12-NSD, which have been welcomed into more homes than any new SVS subwoofer ever.  Keep things simple, elegant and compact, don’t ladle on un-needed detailing or fussy styling.  That’s the SVS way.

Multiple installation modes

While any speaker can be good looking or compact (not that all are of course), few give you so many ways to set up in a room.  The SBS-02 satellite/surround speaker comes complete with small adhesive foam rubber foot pads for basic placement on a bookshelf; or you can place them on optional stands (which also come with additional rubber pads).  There’s more than one way to put them up on wall even. Use the beefy wall brackets we offer to mate with machined threaded inserts (already embedded into the cabinet), or try the “key-hole” fitting for simple and firm hanging with a simple screw driven into your room’s wall studs.  Many brands offer one or the other, few offer both, fewer still at this price. 

The SCS-02(M) and as center channel takes things even further.  With dual sets of threaded inserts and dual key-hole hardware, we went even more over the top with a no-cost optional TILT-Base™ which allows you to set your speaker on a TV, or on a stand under your TV, you have up or down adjustment of 10 degrees to keep your ears in the middle of the action from the critical center position. For vertical use the SCS-02(M) can use single or dual wall brackets depending on desired tilt and location desires. Talk to the experts at SVS for more advice.  

Audiophile-grade crossover

There are crossovers ... and there are crossovers.  Well, believe it or not, some cheap speakers out there have NO crossover.  In our view, if the woofers and tweeters of a fine audio speaker are its heart… the crossover is the brain.  It determines how well all components “mesh” with each other.  The crossover, if it’s done right, will maintain flat frequency response, and can handle the power so readily available on today’s receiver/amp market.  And it will do all this without adding coloration or artifacts along the way.  Part art, part science.  Always, if done right, a tough part to perfect.  Few if any speakers in this price range have audiophile grade crossovers with so much sweat expended on them as the SBS-02 and SCS-02 (each with their own designs).  Custom capacitors, massive air-core inductors, top-grade printed circuit boards (even the substrate for the board itself was upgraded over the standard fare), carefully constructed to be resonance-free when new, and stay that way.  All mounted safe and secure to the cabinet, our two way crossover is another example of where “good enough” … wasn’t.   

Frequency response

Like our legendary subwoofers, our speakers are "linear" in their frequency response, with similarly spectacular results. A glance at the below chart shows this clearly.  Taken grill off, on-axis (where you sit in the normal sound "fan" of a speaker) the sort of "flat" response you see below is evidence we took great pains to make sure you hear what the sound engineer intended.  Nothing more, nothing less.  They are neither "bright" (with an exaggerated high frequency emphasis as some speakers can have), nor are they "laid back" or "warm" (which tends to be the exact opposite, with less high frequency extension).

Specs pending update with new configurations.