to my ears,Simaudio moon is a better mate to PMC than Bryston.
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I recently listened to a friend's system that is comprised of the EB1i driven by one 4B-SST. Source is a Mac to an Ayre DAC. Sounds good with exemplary bass notes. He is contemplating of getting another two units of 4B-SST since the speakers can be tri-amped. He was advised by the dealer than the bigger PMCs need a lot of power to come alive. Another factor to consider is the passive PMCs can be converted to actives by some modifications which will totally transform them to another league. Not too sure the purpose of this thread but if you are considering PMC speakers, do consider the bigger ones if possible -OB1i and above. My friend said that he would never go back to smaller speakers after listening to the EB1i mainly due to the very full and deep bass coming out from these transmission line speakers. One can literally feel the thumping bass notes hitting the chest. He mentioned he cannot get that with his previous Audio Physics Scorpio driven by Nagra which the system was completely outclassed by the Bryston/PMC. Voices also sound real and uncolored albeit some can sound little harsh and glaring mainly due to the audio files ripped from less than perfect CDs. Overall it was still very listenable. He didn't try any other amps with the EB1i. |
the purpose of this thread is 1-NOT to bash Bryston but to see if anyone has tried the likes of Krell or other amps(really curious) 2-To see were other electronics sit with PMC such as source and pre/pro Yes i was fortunate enough to acquire MB2's and have a Krell HTS 7.1,Sim Audio Titan(7ch) and i am looking at a Krell SACD Standard...i am curious on others trials and errors really... thanks guys john |
Hi there; I own a pair of PMC IB1's. Shortly I will be selling these(mint black ash pair) and they will be replaced with the New PMC IB2i's. I am looking forward to them! As far as amplification, I started off with Anthem MCA series, followed by Bryston 4bsst's. They where similar, but the Bryston had better control. I then changed to McIntosh C500t tube pre and MC501 mono blocks. I could not be happier as far as the PMC's now sing! Don't get me wrong the McIntosh bass is different than Bryston,but not by much. Where I feel the McIntosh takes over is the overall musicality. I know the PMC IB2i's will take things up a few notches shortly. Just my 2 cents in my system. Cheers! |
I have no experience with Bryston amplifiers but I recently purchased a pair of PMC EB1i's and McIntosh MC352 from Audio Classics mated with a C2300 tube pre-amp. I settled on the EB1i's after after owning B&W 803D's and other speakers in this range. I absolutley love the PMC's, the most honest speaker I have ever listened to. Good vinyl recordings sound spectacular on these speakers as well and I am hearing detail like I have never heard. My B&W's seemed to have more "punch" in the bass department probably due to the 3 driver design, but nowhere near the soundstage. These speakers envelop the room with very deep bass all the way down to 19hz. I have owned k-horns in the past which encompass folded horn cabinet design to achieve extended bass, but let me assure you, the mighty khorn doesn't hold up in the bass department to EB1i's in my hummble opinion. |
I recently purchased a pair of the tiny DB1+s. Amazing sound from such a small speaker. Mine are passively bi-amped with a pair of PS Audio Trio A-100 amps. Very nice sound once I got the sub integrated properly. The nice thing about the A-100s and bi-amping is, they have a rear panel switch which allows for bi-amping with a single cable. |
He is contemplating of getting another two units of 4B-SST since the speakers can be tri-amped. That would be overkill. The Vifa midrange on the EB1i has a very small magnet (240 grams) with low Xmax and FOR SURE the tweeter does not need 200 watts... I'd suggest your friend looks for much smaller powered amps for the tweeter and midrange - a much lower powered class A might be the ticket. FWIW: It is definitely worth triamping as you can remove IMD distortion (distortion bleeds from one bandwidth to the next when you use a passive crossover and a single amplifier that is trying to send several AMPS to the Woofer but barely a milli-amp to the tweeter) |
Coming in late to the discussion... That said, I work for PMC... In my travels I have heard many a good combination of our speakers with various electronics. Some of the best sound that I have ever heard from a PMC (not including the wide array of mastering studios using our MB2 & BB5 XBD Acitves) was the GB1i, such a tiny floorstander with a big sound. I've heard it with a Simaudio Moon i7 that sounded absolutely magnificent. I've heard those same Gb's with a Krell S-1000 and Evolution 400, absolutely fantastic yet again. A dealer of mine has the Bel Canto 300w monos and he say it's the best sound in his shop. A ton of Mac users love their PMC's. Any of the Parasound Halo's sound great with PMC. A longtime customer of mine has four different systems with various Audio Research pieces all with some PMC or another, obviously he's either content, obsessed, or both. There are so many different companies out there whose sonic signature can be conveyed for what it is through our speakers for better or worse. Bryston is it for me though, with response that flat and that much power on tap... With a 20 year warranty? It's easy.. note: we are no longer officially affiliated with Bryston outside of our highest end active systems. |
Mvwhiting, Are there measurements published for the GB1i. The predecessor appeared to has some strong resonances on the mid/woofer, possibly due to the TL? I must say that my favorite two way speaker from the 80's was Energy Pro 22 which also has a very low crossover (1.8 Khz). I see you crossed over at 2 Khz! This enables you to avoid the beaming that occurs in nearly all large woofer/mids above about 1 Khz. The success of the GB1i speaker despite the bumpy frequency response (see link) suggests that WIDE EVEN DISPERSION is extremely important - perhaps a lot more important than ruler flat frequency response on axis. For this reason, I suspect I still prefer three way designs and your company makes some of the best studio three ways in the business (by far). Care to comment on the Gb1i design and the unusually low crossover? |
My neighbour brought his PMC IB1's over this wknd for a true comparison of the MB2/IB1,and as you know the MID was truely the big difference..well and BASS.We did not have some large amps available(Bryston 14bsst,Krell FPB600 etc.)But we used the Classe CA300 and the Sim Audio Titan on single amp playing and bi-amping(we agreed we liked the 300 on mid/hi and Titan on bass)and whether you are listening to Classical/Jazz at 4 on the volume or Madonna/MJ these speakers sound precise and true.We used my Krell HTS 7.1 pre/pro and a Raysonic CD128 with Bugle Boy tubes, all balanced...Well don't let anyone fool you,the mids are night and day once you get these speakers side by side....and the Bass is up to par with the mid in 2ch.We both agreed that these speakers are some of the best we ever heard. john |
