PMC’s New Twenty Series Centre Speaker enhances the Home Theatre Experience
At the forthcoming Sound & Vision Show in Bristol on 24-26 February, PMC will be unveiling the new twenty.C dedicated centre channel loudspeaker. With styling and performance to complement the recently launched twenty series speakers, the twenty.C enables home theatre enthusiasts to share in all the benefits of PMC’s latest drive unit and ATL™ innovations, to enhance their enjoyment of movie soundtracks significantly.
The twenty.C centre channel has been conceived in response to the phenomenal reception that the twenty series received when it was launched at the company’s 20th anniversary conference in September 2011. The most common request since then from the company’s distributors, retailers and end users has been for a centre channel to match the four strong line up of the twenty series.
Using identical twenty series M13 5½” drive units as the twenty.21 stand mount and twenty.23 floorstanding models, the twenty.C is voiced to match the speakers with which it will be partnered. The bass/mid drive units, developed by PMC, have lightweight and stiff paper cones, with a matt finish doping, and are built into cast alloy chassis to provide a rigid and stable environment and offer high sensitivity and low colouration. Twin drivers flank the new SONOLEX™ fabric dome tweeter, developed in conjunction with SEAS® of Norway. This all new tweeter provides a phenomenal off-axis response thanks to the new dispersion grille; a technology previously used on the company’s flagship studio monitors and more recently in the fact® series. The addition of a resonance chamber enables the crossover point to be lowered to just 1.8kHz, which further enhances the dispersion characteristics of the speakers.
The twenty series saw the development of an entirely new set of components; including drive units, crossovers, binding posts, cabinets, plinths and spikes. No components used in the twenty series feature in any other PMC loudspeaker and the major elements have been designed exclusively for the new models. These components have been carried over into the twenty.C centre channel in order to ensure absolute coherence with the front left and right and rear channel speakers in a complete twenty series home theatre set up.
As with all PMC loudspeakers, the twenty.C features the company’s patented Advanced Transmission Line (ATL™) technology. The 18mm Medite HDF cabinet construction and design, with its 5∘ sloping front and rear baffles, are inherently high in rigidity and low in resonance, which serves to reduce cabinet induced distortions significantly and enhance the performance of the ATL as well as offering dynamic, contemporary aesthetics. Further developments of the ATL technology have enabled the engineers to produce a much deeper bass than would generally be possible in a cabinet of this size. And, crucially, the effectiveness of the ATL greatly enhances the mid-range clarity that is so important in the performance of a centre channel speaker, which can be handling up to 70% of the movie soundtrack and dialogue.
PMC has a long pedigree in the world of movie soundtracks, with many of the leading composers, scoring artists and film mixing studios choosing PMC speakers for their monitoring systems. Building upon the company’s considerable experience of designing loudspeakers for this demanding industry ensures that the twenty.C, and other models in the twenty series, will allow the movie lover to experience the soundtrack sounding exactly as it was recorded.
Peter Thomas, founder and chief designer, said of the twenty.C, “The missing piece in the new twenty series was the centre channel speaker, but being PMC we wanted to design a no compromise product from the ground up that is perfect for the job. That is why it has taken us five months since the launch of the twenty series to come out with the twenty.C.” He added, “Creating an impressive low end performance with phenomenal vocal clarity from a speaker small enough to slot into a standard AV rack is not without its challenges. The engineering team has spent many hours perfecting a new transmission line and has come up with something special for the twenty.C. I am convinced that movie lovers will be enthralled by the performance when they hear it.”
Also carried over from the other speakers in the range is 24dB filtering, a result of the drive unit and crossover circuit design, which ensures a smooth transition from tweeter to bass/mid drivers. Short signal paths, ultra thick pure copper tracks, gold through plating and a military grade board, plus audiophile capacitors and laminate cored inductors, further provide extremely low distortion and high power handling.
The twenty.C is available in a choice of three real wood veneers, Oak, Walnut and Amarone and a new high gloss finish, Diamond Black. The exclusive warm black PMC cloth covered grille is fixed in place using invisible magnets to retain an unblemished front baffle. As with all PMC passive loudspeakers the twenty.C is covered by the class-leading 20 year warranty.
PMC will be demonstrating the twenty.C at Sound & Vision, The Bristol Show, as part of a full twenty series home theatre system, together the new Bryston SP-3 surround processor in the Berlin 3 Suite on the ground floor.