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Living Voice vs PMC?

Just about to ship my B&W's and now the question is what to buy. I've been looking at the Living Voice Avatars and could locally get a pair of PMC OB1+'s which I've auditoned before and very much liked them.

As I'm planning on buying a Mastersound Due Venti integrated the Living Voice speakers should be the better choice as they seem to fit a tube amp better, but I've never had a chance to audition these speakers and can only go by reviews and what I can find in the forums.

I did prefer the PMC's to my B&W 703's as they sounded somewhat warmer and the bass was a bit stronger.

Would like to hear from anyone who may have had the chance to hear and possibly compare these speakers as I'll have to take my pick sometime soon and am not sure what to do yet, however, I do lean towards the Living Voice line as they seem to allow me for a bigger choice of amps.

Thanks
krauti
7 responses Add your response
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
The PMC OB1+ does not use the same high quality midrange as in the bigger
PMC's - it uses the Vifa D75MX (which is cheap and compresses quite easily).
IMHO, better to get a "real" PMC - the ones with their own big
3" dome or an older used PMC model that uses the high quality ATC mid
dome. Two cents.
ryder
1,689 posts
 
I agree with Shadorne on the bigger PMCs. If you can afford it, you should look at EB1, a 3-way which features a Sonolex tweeter, dedicated 3" midrange driver and 10" woofer. If out of your budget, you might want to look at the Harbeth SHL-5. This speaker may change your life forever. Great transparency and very coherent throughout the spectrum largely contributed by the Radial woofer, a proprietary driver exclusively manufactured in-house by Harbeth that gives the warm and fresh Harbeth sound.
sashav
72 posts
 
EB1 has the same Vifa midrange driver as OB1, so if that is the criteria there is no point going to EB1.
You want to look for speakers that use ATC or PMC (not Vifa) dome midrange, there are several manufacturers that sue them.
In PMC lineup, the first one is IB2.
ryder
1,689 posts
 
Sashav, may I know where did you get the info on the EB1 having the same drivers as the OB1? The OB1 is totally different from the EB1. As a matter of fact, the EB1 is essentially similar to the IB2 since it was developed from the IB1. All drivers in the EB1 are similar to the IB2. The biggest difference between the OB1 and EB1/IB2 lies in the 10" carbon fibre nomex piston driver found in the latter which provides phenomenal dynamics, transparency and resolution. The OB1 only has the normal 6 1/2 inch doped LF driver as found in other smaller PMC speakers.
sashav
72 posts
 
Ryder,
You can get that info from PMC site, or do a search on the net, there is plenty of info on PMC.
OB1, IB1 and EB1 all have Vifa midrange driver.
The only difference between OB1 and EB1 is LF driver, cabinet and of course cross-over.
In-house made PMC driver is used in IB2, MB2 and higher models.
Just find good resolution pictures of EB1 and IB2, or visit PMC dealer, and you will see glaringly different midrange drivers.
I owned PMC speakers including IB2, and the reason for IB2 was the midrange driver, so I should know.
ryder
1,689 posts
 
Thanks for the information. I didn't notice any Vifa drivers mentioned in the PMC webpage. I guess that explains the price difference between the EB1 and IB2 in the use of higher quality midrange driver. At any rate, the EB1 is still a significant step-up from the OB1 due to the large Nomex piston woofer and bigger cabinet.
sashav
72 posts
 
Absolutely, EB1 IMO has far better LF performance than IB1/IB2/MB2 (passive), not just a question of few extra Hz, there is audibly less distortion, appears to be the benefit of redesigned TL.
It is shame PMC has no plans for EB2 (EB1 with PMC dome mid), that would be the ultimate speaker.
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