How PMC stole the show at Sound & Vision, The Bristol Show
Visitors to this weekend’s Sound & Vision Show in Bristol were treated to the full effect of 1800 watts and 17Hz output of three of PMC’s XB3 subwoofers and 11 wafers in the What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision demonstration. And with no fewer than ten pairs of twenty series speakers in use throughout various rooms, PMC truly was the star of the show.
After a phenomenal review of the wafer 2 on-wall speakers in a recent issue of What Hi-Fi? Magazine, the editorial team decided to install 11 wafers in their demonstration room, to show off just how good a discrete loudspeaker installation can sound. Demonstrating music concert video and full action movie clips, the wafer’s ably showed that custom installation can sound every bit as good as traditional speakers. And providing a low frequency output, the likes of which has probably never been heard at the show before, were three of the 15” radial driver equipped XB3 subwoofers. More usually found in the world’s top recording studios to monitor the low frequencies of the world’s biggest movie soundtracks, the XB3’s were powered by three Bryston 7BSST2 power amplifiers.
Simon Lucas, from What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision said “A big part of the success of the What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision demo room was due to the performance of the PMC speaker package. A potent combination of seven Wafer 2s, four wafer 1s and three XB3 subwoofers delivered a sound of considerable scale and authority, with detail and dexterity to spare..."
As visitors moved around the show they were drawn towards the PMC surround sound demonstration in the Berlin Suite, where a pair of twenty.24s and twenty.22s were joined by the new twenty.C centre channel speaker, getting its world debut on the end of Bryston’s new SP3 processor and 9BSST2 five channel power amplifier. On the second floor PMC was showing off the entire twenty series range in two channel stereo demonstrations throughout the weekend to consistently packed rooms.
Moving up a level to floor three, another three pairs of twenty series speakers could be found. 21s and 24s were in use in the Heed Audio room connected up to the company’s Obelisk range of compact electronics, with visitors exclaiming just how involving and moving the sound was, particularly liking the incredible depth of the 24s when playing demanding music by the long standing PMC users Kraftwerk.
A couple of doors down from Heed Audio, US cable giant AudioQuest was also using a pair of twenty.21s for its computer audio demos. Robert Hay, European marketing and sales manager said, “We first heard the twenty.21s at PMC and just knew we had to have them for Bristol. Visitors to our room felt very at home with the speakers because they are understandable and achievable, offering really high performance for a sensible price.” He added, “A good number of our customers asked where the sub was!”
The 10th pair of twenty series speakers could be found on the fourth floor in the Vertere room, where founder Touraj Moghaddam had chosen a pair of 24s for their incredible transparency in order to show off the company’s new range of high performance cables.
With so many PMC speakers in use it is doubtful whether any visitors to the show could have missed the opportunity to experience the wafers, the XB3 subwoofers or the twenty series. Sound & Vision 2012 was definitely The PMC Show.