PMC speakers vs B&W... has anyone compared?

Just a few thoughts having heard both speakers over the years:

1) The PMC is a very accurate and revealing speaker. I had a set of Celestions that were the same way and found that I couldn't stand them after a while. Most recording aren't that good and revealing speakes make them sound like crap. I found that I didn't like having 80% of my music collection rendered unusable.

2) B&W has a unique sonic signature. It is prevelant through their line. Either you like it or hate it.

Instead of looking at speakers based on their specs, why don't you figure out your price range and go look at some of the more popular designs. Vandersteen, Magnepan, Theil, Revel, Ariel, and many others make great speakers in the price range you are looking. All have their own unique attributes in the price range. Listen to them and you will probably find one that you love.

A final comment on accuracy vs. musicality. I think accuracy is far overplayed. No speaker is truly accurate and all have deficiencies. Rather than try to pick the one that is "most accurate", find one that has compromises that fit your listening needs best and buy that. In my case, I use Magnepans, they have many innacuracies, but I have not found any better compromise for my listening.

A perfectly accurate (as opposed to bright or clinical which is not the same thing) whould also by definition be perfectly musical.

Can anyone tell me the difference between PMC's MB1 and MB2?

PMC make great speakers - I read somewhere that Brian May uses them. However, your comparison may not be fair.....the FB1+ is a two way design and this is not nearly as good as a three way design such as the B&W 800 series.

Frequency range specifications are NOT a good way to judge a speaker...low distortion, good dispersion, high dynamic range and accuracy & timbre under various operating levels is much more important.

Having said this, if you were to compare B&W 800 range to the PMC IB2S or MB2S then I think you would find PMC are comparable...indeed many would say significantly better...especially the dome mid range which was designed by PMC to compete with ATC in the professional studio markets where ATC dominate and have become widely accepted as having the best mid range driver in the world (PMC used the ATC mid range driver until they developed their own).

Just to shine some light on the obvious ignorance being perpetrated in this thread, or to simply point out the purposeful bashing of B&W. Here are a few links concerning Abbey Road Studios and their new purchases...

one link

another link

You can do a simple search yourselves to find more. Seems Abbey Road is using B&W (800D) and Classe for its "Reference" systems. This is very recent news as well. Perhaps those choosing to intentionally bash B&W (a quick look at some thread histories in at least one of their profiles will show it is intentional as well as maliciously oriented) sell another brand, or produce their own brands and are displaying speaker envy.