SVS Prime Series Centre Speaker

A True Three-Way Centre for Dialogue You Never Miss

The SVS Prime Series Centre Speaker is a true three-way centre channel, a rarity at its price. A dedicated sealed midrange handles voices while dual 5.25-inch woofers add weight and a 1-inch aluminium tweeter opens up the top end, so dialogue stays clear and intelligible whether it is a quiet line of speech or a full action scene.

Why You'll Love It

• Dialogue that cuts through. The dedicated 3.5-inch midrange sits in its own sealed compartment, so the woofers cannot colour voices. Speech stays clear and natural even when the soundtrack gets busy.
• Clear at every seat. The tweeter and midrange are vertically aligned, the same approach as SVS's flagship Ultra Centre, which kills the comb filtering that muddies dialogue for anyone sitting off to the side.
• Genuine three-way design. Most centres at this price are two-way. The Prime's separate tweeter, midrange and dual woofers each do one job well, for a bigger, more composed sound.

Under the Hood

• Refined drivers. A 1-inch aluminium dome tweeter with an FEA-optimised diffuser for open, airy highs.
• Dedicated midrange and dual bass. A 3.5-inch polypropylene midrange in a sealed enclosure, plus dual 5.25-inch polypropylene woofers with aluminium shorting rings for punchy, articulate bass.
• Quality crossover. A SoundMatch 3-way crossover with premium capacitors, air-core inductors and heavy-trace boards, crossing at 350 Hz and 2.4 kHz.

CHT Insider Verdict

The centre channel carries most of a movie's dialogue, so it is the speaker worth getting right. The Prime Centre punches above its price with a true three-way layout and the vertically-aligned drivers borrowed from SVS's flagship, which is why it is such a popular match for the Prime and Ultra towers and bookshelves. Pair it with the rest of the Prime range for a seamless front soundstage.

Pro Tip: Keep the centre at ear height and angled towards your seats. If it has to sit low under the TV, tilt it up towards ear level so the vertically-aligned tweeter and midrange can do their job. The ports fire from the rear, so leave a little space behind it rather than pushing it flush against the cabinet.