PMC twenty5.26
Floorstanding loudspeakers
PMC is a British speaker company that primarily focuses on professional studio monitoring. Their speakers found home at many mastering studios and the fact that the company was awarded an Emmy® for their contribution to recording excellence says everything. The PMC twenty5.26 is a top model of their twenty5 range for domestic use. And it offers brilliant sound.
Function and form
The twenty5 series has a sort of British meets French meets Scandinavian design. The simple rectangular towers are tilted back to achieve time alignment of drivers – the tilt can be further optimized by provided spikes that are bolted to two metal bars to increase stability of the rather slim and high speaker.
With sensitivity at 86dB and 8 ohms nominal impedance they require watts and control and the AVM M3 Evolution monoblocks that I used (200 watts into each channel) were the minimum I would recommend to use if you want to exploit the PMC’s potential.
Bass management
The bass is handled by what they call “g-weave” driver in PMC. It is a resin-bound, fine-weave glass fibre and pulp hybrid cone which is claimed to be both lightweight and stiff to achieve high pressure. The cone is supported by their proprietary Laminair bass reflex port. It is actually a transmission line over 3m long that makes the air pressure travel through the speaker’s cabinet before it reaches the dual port that fires forward and have a special radial arrangement of thin fins inside to reduce turbulence and noise, and increase the speed of the output air via laminar flow. This should make the bass more dynamic and time-aligned.
I have to confess that I considered those claims to be usual marketing declarations but the explosive bass transients that were perfectly aligned to the midrange and highs left me short of breath. Tour de France Soundtracks (Kraftwerk) exhibited with the bass pulses that were perhaps a bit ‘lighter’ for the speaker of the twenty5.26 size yet I was rewarded by very dynamic and punchy throbs that were very wonderfully contoured without any colorations.
Clarity & delicacy
For the twenty5.26 PMC continues to use a 27mm dome tweeter from Norwegian SEAS. It is made from Sonolex (precoated lightweight fabric diaphragm) and hidden behind a perforated grille that is optimized to give smooth response and precise imaging.
The highs I heard were brilliant – despite their source is the fabric dome they have spark and body that is considered to be a domain of diamond tweeters. On vocals and cymbals I never heard any sibilance or sizzle, even when the PMCs were pushed hard. This is a masterfully balanced pair of speakers.
Tonal accuracy
Alike another British brand, ATC, the PMC uses soft dome midrange drivers. This is not a coincidence as in the past the company sourced the drivers from ATC, however, since then they optimized the design and manufacture the drivers in house. The midrange has a 50mm soft dome that throws beautifully natural colours. I could detect a very slight tilt towards the warmer spectrum of sound which is a good choice from designers – the sound of the PMC twenty5.26 is very precise and revealing and if it was further shifted into ‘colder’ balance it could end up to be overly clinical. This is not the case of the twenty5.26. The deep voice of Johnny Cash on American IV: The Man Comes Around was holographic with fantastic presence in the room and human-like tonal balance, never sounding detached or mechanical. The PMCs were also doing extremely well on classical music where they exhibited with good instrumental separation and realistic timbres, PLUS breathtaking dynamics. I would like to hear even more of the tinniest micro dynamic detail but then we need to pay twice as much money. The macro attacks were among the best available in the class.
Spatial resolution
I was listening to the PMC twenty5.26 in a large room of circa 70sqm yet it was a breeze for them. With some material that was recorded low level and had high dynamic peaks, like George Michael’s Faith or first pressings of Deep Purple recordings I could hear a bit of stress when played loud to achieve high average loudness levels but I did not manage to drive them into clipping even in the room of this size.
The depth of image was good, with the sonic pictures projected slightly upfront – this will be different with different electronics. The width expanded the room to the size of a barn, with finely resolved spatial ratios, so good it was.
The PMC speakers come with 20 years warranty which shows the confidence of their creators. I think it may be very beneficial for a future owner as he (or she) will probably have no reason to upgrade. These are excellent speakers.
Recommended resellers
Luxusni Elektronika, Zlín, tel. +420 721 123 123
Manufacturer's website: http://www.pmc-speakers.com
Associated components
- Sources: AVM MP30 CD/media center, TW-Acustic Raven One with Graham Phantom tonearm and Transfiguration Orpheus cartridge
- Amplifiers: AVM V30 preamplifier, AVM M3 mono blocks, phono Gruensch Reference Phonostage MCS
- Interconects and speaker cables: Kubala-Sosna Elation!
- Power conditioning: Furutech Daytona 303E, Shunyata Research Python Zi-Tron
Gallery
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