The Florida Audio Expo wrapped up this weekend with its fair share of product releases. Perhaps one of the most exciting for big speaker enthusiasts was the announcement of a new flagship piece from Von Schweikert Audio in the form of their new Ultra 7 floorstander.
VSA has consistently impressed with their “big room” presence at audio shows in the past, and our more intimate experience with their brand left us with some of the most impressive resolution we have ever heard here at the lab. So the big reveal of another update to the ULTRA line no doubt drew much attention from show goers. The new Von Schweikert ULTRA 7 packs in an array of mid and low ceramic drivers, a beryllium tweeter AND one dual ribbon tweeter. VSA’s “Rear Ambient Array” then includes an additional rear-firing single ribbon tweeter and a magnesium horn loaded tweeter as well. That’s a lot of tech packed into shoulder height floorstander. Full details in the release below.
Von Schweikert Audio
World Class Reference Loudspeakers for Music and Film
February 18, 2022
Von Schweikert Audio is pleased to debut to the world our newest addition to our flagship lineup, the ULTRA 7 this week at the Florida Audio Expo which began development nearly three years ago.
So what is the ULTRA 7?
First off, it’s an ULTRA model which means it shares all the sonic and structural DNA of our other ULTRA reference loudspeakers. In this instance, it’s simply a different configuration of those previous designs that hopefully will be the “sweet spot” for some audiophiles in performance, aesthetics and ultimately budget.
Here’s what you get with the ULTRA 7.
• Extremely low distortion, class-defining clarity, three-dimensional image focus, and lush harmonic structure expected from these award-winning ULTRA designs.
• Our proprietary network topologies G.A.I.N. (Global Axis Integration Network) and A.I.R. (Acoustic Inverse Replication) which deliver our signature driver integration, holographic imaging, tonal accuracy and overall award-winning performance; what we call, The Sound of Reality. Please note, these network topologies have benefited from ongoing iteration for more than four decades of development.
• Our ULTRA line of exotic drivers. Each channel of the ULTRA 7 design incorporates the following: Front Facing – three 9″ reinforced Ceramic Woofers, one 7″ reinforced Ceramic Midrange, one Beryllium Tweeter and one Dual Ribbon Super Tweeter. Rear Facing – one Ribbon Super Tweeter and one Magnesium Horn Loaded Tweeter combined into our Rear Ambient Array.
• MasterBuilt Audio Ultra Line of internal wiring comes standard on the ULTRA Line. Each signal path is individually shielded and damped with point-to-point connections. Designed by leaders in the Aerospace industry and made with rare and precious alloys. It’s simply the most transparent signal path we’ve experienced.
• Point to point hand-built networks with isolated architecture that protects crossover parts and wiring from electrical noise contamination (aka distortion). In other words, we don’t crowd all the network components for woofers, midranges and tweeters onto a small, printed circuit board which looks very high-tech but ultimately creates distortion.
• Version 2.0 Aktive Cabinet Vibration Control, eliminating cabinet resonances with new materials and layering techniques built on more than 25 years of iteration.
• A full set of our new proprietary LS Footers designed by Critical Mass System is included for the best loudspeaker isolation we’ve ever experienced. More to come on this product very soon!
• Time Alignment, Phase Consistency, and adjustable bi-polar sound radiation pattern for room-filling sound. The ULTRA 7 design achieve full-range response from 18Hz to 60kHz with 94 dB sensitivity @ 1w/1m.
• Finally, our revolutionary Room Adjustment Control Suite. Our designs are 100% analog and are designed for reference flat frequency response shipped from the factory. Yet we understand the real-world challenge of getting flat response in the various listening room environments. By utilizing our Room Adjustment Control Suite consisting of autoformers with induvial signal paths for each level selection, we can adjust the Main Tweeter, Super Tweeter and Rear Ambient Array independently by 1/2 dB increments allowing us to achieve much greater reference performance in your room than any other analog loudspeakers available. This is one of the key factors that has led to our unprecedent number of Best in Show awards over the years.
The ULTRA 7 at $180K MSRP firmly carves out a place between the very room friendly ULTRA 55 at $100K MSRP and the dominant ULTRA 9 at $225K MSRP and in our opinion, shares the most compelling features of both. The ULTRA 7 footprint and overall height is not much greater than the ULTRA 55 so the speaker will fit into even a small sound room very comfortably and yet, can pressurize a large sound room with little effort. But the ULTRA 7 benefits from almost all the technology of our ULTRA 9 specifically in the Room Adjustment Control Suite. This allows far greater ability to achieve flat response even in the most trying room environments while remaining 100% analog.
More info: Von Schweikert ULTRA 7
