Part of the fun of attending any audio show is the joy one receives from listening to what’s really, unattainable gear for most mere mortals. Walk the halls of the Montreal Audio Show and you can experience $50,000 headphones, a turntable featuring a $15,000 cartridge, bespoke $100,000 speakers, and full systems that cost the same as a Toronto condo. That’s the fun of attending the show; to be exposed to incredibly bespoke, beautiful products that are most likely, out of financial reach for the majority of buyers. The show lets you dream.
Visiting the large demo room from U.S. speaker manufacturer SVS Sound, I figured here we go again, a showcase of the best-of-the-best that SVS has to offer with a six-figure price tag to go along with it.
Arriving before the show officially opened, Larry McGough SVS National Training Manager and Edit Cantor, National Sales Manager for Evolution Home Corp. the distributor that represents SVS for Canada, sat me down and explained that they will be showcasing a reference-level Dolby Atmos music and home theater system featuring the brand’s flagship Ultra Evolution speakers and the new 3000 R|Evolution subwoofers in a 5.2.4 array.
Sharing the room with SVS, was the start-up projector company AWOL Vision, showing their new and Kickstarter funded Aetherion Max 4K ultra short throw (UST) projector featuring a triple-laser RGB light engine and up to 3,300 lumens of brightness, with an ability to project screens up to 200 inches while maintaining full 4K detail. The AWOL Aetherion Max is designed to look like a Tesla cyber truck. When I asked McGough why they’d be partnering with a Kickstarter funded upstart rather than an established projector company like JVC or Epson, McGough said that the underdog mentality and trying something untested is simply part of the SVS DNA. In many ways like the speaker company itself.
Our demo featured the start of the movie F1, with Brad Pitt about to take the wheel of a Porsche 911 RSR at the Rolex 24-hour race in Daytona where Pitt’s Sonny Hayes goes from sixth place to first, just as Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” hits maximum sound. What a great way to start the audio show!
The full demo system featured: 2x SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle speakers (front left/right), SVS Ultra Evolution Center speaker, 2 x SVS Ultra Evolution Tower speakers (surrounds), 4 x SVS Ultra Evolution Elevation speakers (Dolby Atmos height channels), 2 x SVS PB-3000 R|Evolution subwoofers all driven with a Marantz Cinema 30 AV Receiver.
We moved away from the home theatre experience to then listen to Elton John’s “Rocket Man” in surround sound-audio, and we finished the demo with me asking for McGough to isolate the two front Pinnacle speakers without subs so I could hear the SVS flagship speakers in a two-channel setting. In all situations, SVS delivered crisp detailed sound with gorgeous cross-over, isolated lows and highs with no fatigue. In my working notes I wrote down big, brash and powerful. McGough explained for 2026, SVS has revamped their speaker design, including improving the driver technology, refining the crossover engineering, and enhancing their cabinet construction. McGough said the greatest complement he receives is when the SVS Pinnacle are placed in the same category as the Bowers & Wilkins 801. I let that one slide noting it was too early in the day to argue, but I left the demo noting that SVS is a brand that is shooting for the stars.
Expecting to be told that this massive set-up with two enormous subs would be setting you back close to the $100 grand mark, McGough said the complete 5.2.4 system retails for just north of $15,000 Canadian!
Just goes to show, that among the “oh if only” dream set-ups on display at the Montreal Audio show, there’s still brands that can deliver at a bargain price. SVS Sound is exclusively distributed in Canada by Evolution Home Corp.