PMC twenty series owners THREAD REVIEWS

leon

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I am not so good at writing my thought on the pmc twenty three speakers but I will give it a go.
I am also not a hi-fi buff but I have been in the hobby for 20 years ‘I am mainly into home cinema.

The speakers were delivered from my local shop a few days before Christmas so as you can guess I was very excited on Christmas morning.

The speakers are well packed nice plinths and instructions with warrantee card.
I attached my chord epic twin speaker cables to them and grabbed my cd’s turned on the amps server etc and thought write here goes I have blu rays cd’s flac files lets see what these quite small speakers can do .


The music consisted of heavy rock to classic a bit of every thing .
So the amps are warm its nice a quite let’s try the everlast album ( white trash beautiful ).
Hmm they sounded flat bass-less and withdrawn,, it was like listening to them with an over coat draped Over the speaker , as you can guess it’s Christmas morning and I was not a happy chappy , lets try some other stuff 10 cd and 20 flacs later still the same , my thought were is this the best I can get from a speaker that I have heard so much about ,


Well I left the room with the parasound and onkyo on 30 vol and left the room to prepare the Christmas dinner
I went back into the room around eleven so the speaker had been on from 6 am .sat down to look at my email's when all of a sudden at 11.15 the dances with wolves cd went from disappointing to holy sh*t what happened these things came alive it was like a tap that went from 10% to 100% they where unleashed the high end was rich and amazingly accurate , the drums in track 7 just rolled of the speakers and pocked u in the face ,
These pocket rockets came alive and I smiled again .:)


The finish 5/5
First class finish you can even smell the oils used to treat the wood when u unwrap them, the grills and terminals are fist class

For home cinema use 4/5
very accurate in music scenes for films they would be great for rear speakers but as a driving force then no unless you have a room around 4m x 4m
no substitute for bypole or dipole speakers IMOA


realism 4/5
does it sound like you are there with the artist in your room ?,I guess all these ratings would change depending on your equipment and to get the true artist sound it will cost a lot more money and demos.

sheer pleasure 5/5 that’s the look the sound the pose value with some tilting speakers etc 


Drive 4/5
This is a difficult one the volume I normally listen to music at is around 30 with these I need to be on 70 on the onkyo , this is with the 250w parasound a51 punching its way to the speakers .i think with something like a 100 to 150w amp you would not get the best out of these speakers
Its still early days with these speakers and this is only my point of view on them
And it's only been 60 hours with them and I am finding it difficult not to compare the with definitive technology towers next them with built in active subs which are quite a bit more money than the 23’s


Depth and sheer energy 5/5
Well these do punch above their weight they make a sound that is amazingly large and spacious
It’s a bit like Barry McGuigan punching like Tyson lol. if you close your eyes the sound field is massive. Any type of music would sound good on them.

My next move is to get some 500w mono blocks to see if this will help with my over all view on them ,it seems one minute I am happy the next I am not the main reason I have they need to be warmed up allot I can’t just turn the system on and 15 min later enjoy it .For me at the moment they need to be driven and warm to get a sound out of them that I like , this could be that they just need more time to loosen up its been about 60 hours so far .


The system I am using is.
Naim cd5i
Oppp bdp 95
Parasound a51
Onkyo 5508 processor
Chord indigo xlr ‘s
QNAP server
Isotek main conditioner


Conclusion
I still have a love hate relationship with the speakers maybe it's because they are quite a bit of money and I normally go for speakers that have no fancy looks to them but they just sound great , these do sound great in fact they will rock your boat , any music you throw at them will sound truly amazing ,
Just remember to drive them with a good amp ,
If you’re looking to upgrade through the pmc range I think you should,take a demo and I am sure you will part with your pennies.
Total conclusion with the cost /looks/ sound etc 4.5/5


SORRY ABOUT THE SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION , I WAS LISTENING TO MY HIFI EQUIPMENT WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT SCHOOL 
 

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Thanks for taking the time to write up your thoughts and post the pics :thumbsup:.
 
Hi, a few questions if you don't mind.

1. Does the twenty 23 & twenty 24 come with grills included? I have seen adverts with & without grills.

2. Have you ever heard the PMC OB1i ? I am trying to get an idea of the midrange quality of the twenty 23/24 compared to the OB1i which has a dedicated midrange.

3. What aspect of the 23 do you still not like? I ask this because you say you still have a love-hate-relationship with the speakers :)


Thanks
 
hi thea
1.. yes they come with grills they are magnetic and easy to remove i think you also can have custom designs and colours made for them .

2..sorry only seen the PMC OB1i in my local shop but not heard them.

3.. The love hate is that i have spent a few thousand pounds and they are slightly better than the speakers i already have ,but that's me comparing again with what sits next to them , :rolleyes:
As a stand alone STEREO speaker they are amazing and well worth the money .
 
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What did you upgrade from Leon? The ones they are 'slightly better than' that is.
 
Thanks Leon,

A great review too.

I am considering getting a pair of PMC Twenty.24s. I have heard the OB1is & PB1is which I thought were fantastic. My room is too small for the PB1is that is why I had the OB1is in mind. One worry I have is that the Twenty.24 might not be as good as the OB1is in the mid frequency range as I listen to a lot of solo-instruments.

I would have liked a few more reviews of the Twenty Series, the January edition of UK's HIFI choice has another detailed review of the 23s but not the 24s.

One common complaint seem to be the lack of sensitivity but I think the 24s are supposed to be a bit better and in any case I have a pair of good monoblocks so that is not a worry. I am however very particular of their dynamics - transient response/impact and transparency. I also like PMCs in general as they perform well at low SPLs.

Something tells me the Twenty Series should be an impovement overall so I am looking to audition a pair soon.
 
I would have liked a few more reviews of the Twenty Series

Thought I'd post this from an e-mail that PMC sent over, really looks like the twenty's are doing the business.

Leon, looks like you've made the headlines mate :)

PMC21.jpg
 
Wow that is so cool viper :D
I have just installed two bel canto ref1000 monoblocks. To the 23,s to try out and boy I didnt imagine that they could get more acurate and viberant. I will run them more tomorrow
 
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Thought I'd post this from an e-mail that PMC sent over, really looks like the twenty's are doing the business.

image

Have to agree with every word of that Gramophone review on the 21s. They sound great on the end of my (relatively) modest Cyrus 6XP/SE2 combo, suggesting they are a fairly easy amp load. At the Manchester show, Keith Tonge (Product Manager) from PMC told me that they use a 20yr old Technics receiver (the radio kind, remember them?) as part of the design and testing process to check amp loads, on the basis that if that can drive 'em, anything can.

I am amazed at how sweet they sound, the quality and depth of the bass, and also the depth and airiness of the sound stage. Integration across the frequency range is excellent - they seem on the fun side of neutral, but less so than the DB1i's (at least that was my impression on testing them against those great speakers before purchase). Best buy I have ever made in over 22 years of Hi-Fi and AV equipment purchases and one that I am confident will improve as my system improves.

The 20 year guarantee also gives real piece of mind, not that I expect speakers often go wrong provided one is careful, but it's a nice bonus, nonetheless.
 
Ahhh glad you guys are enjoying your new Twenty speakers, I'm getting so impatient but am trying to put it to the back of my mind as I know it's a long way off till I have the funds. Hope to add a pre-amp to my new power amp in March and then I can just look forward to putting a bit aside each month for a decent deposit on some 22's.

In the mean time keep your thoughts coming guys!

I'd be interested if anyone has heard any PMC driven by a Quad 909 too?
 
some more pictures : with the bel canto,s , by the looks of it i need to dust under them :)


bluedroog i bet you will love the 22,s :smashin:
 

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Best buy I have ever made in over 22 years of Hi-Fi and AV equipment purchases and one that I am confident will improve as my system improves.

I have to agree Barzo, the 21's and 22's are fantastic speakers, this evening I've been setting up a demo for tomorrow which includes some Naim kit and on the end I've put the 22's, this is in our larger demo room and the 22's fill it brilliantly, I was worried they may get a little lost in the room but they sound amazing.

I was playing a 24 bit song by Jen Chapin called 'You Haven't Done Nothing' and I couldn't believe that such a full sound was coming from a bookshelf.

I had to call the boss in as he's new to all this, he's been blown away in the past with the £17,000 Meridian DSP7200's, but he preferred the 22's, not bad praise :)
 
Anyone tried the 24s out?
 
Anyone tried the 24s out?

I did initially when I got them in to our store, but just lately I've been demoing with the either the 22's or 23's, If I get a chance tomorrow I'd like to install the 24's again and sit down and have a real good listen to see what a step up they are now I'm more used to the rest of the range.
 
Bryston/PMC will have more rooms than usual this year. The Bryston headphone amp will be on demo, as well as an SP3 with a 9Bsst2 driving a Twenty series surround system... ;)
I believe there'll be a big set up there too, as well as presence in a few other, high profile rooms too...
 
The other question I had was, does the Twenty.24 have optional upgrade stands, some of the articles seem to indicate so. see: PMC celebrates its 20th anniversary with launch of new twenty speaker range | whathifi.com
The optional stands are for the stand mounting models. There is a dedicated pair of stands designed to go with the twenty.21 and twenty.22 models. They are not on the PMC website yet but you can see images of them here:

pmc twenty stands - Bing Images
 
Centre twenty series
 

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is that price right its around £1200.00 ?
 
There's a very positive and detailed review of the PMC Twenty.24s in this month's Hifi + - well worth a read.
 
Yes I bought Hi-Fi + yesterday also, I posted about it in the PMC owners thread but I guess I should have put it here really, here it is anyway -

For anyone who hasn't already seen, there is an excellent 4 page review of the twenty24's in this months Hi-Fi+.

I've only had a quick read but summing up they seem extremely expressed with their sheer musicality and believe that you would struggle to find another speaker under £5K that is as consistently revealing and entertaining.

The final sentence -

'Pete Thomas has proved that reducing the right colourations can increase musicality, the gauntlet is well and truly down'

I have to say I agree with every word, I seem to be demoing the twenty range daily at the moment, I think PMC definately has a hit on their hands with the twenty's.
 
It would be great if everyone posted the twenty series stuff on this thread ,i recon people just getting into the twenty series range wont need to go through so many pages to find what they need like on the other thread ) just a thought

Im loving these 23,s I have upgraded my power cables and speaker cable to the bel canto,s and I am running balanced system now well happy
 
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