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Spendor, PMC, ProAc, ATC- Sonic characteristics and differences?

Hello-I am interested to learn more about four of the UK speaker companies that I have interest in, but have no way of auditioning; Spendor, PMC, ProAc, and ATC.

I've read their web sites and tried to find various posts and reviews about their products, but it seems there are not too many overall descriptions or comparisons of these four companies and their signature sound profiles, and the engineering approaches to their products.

I'm familiar to some degree, and have owned or heard, some of the other British speakers from Bowers & Wilkins, KEF,  Monitor Audio, and Wharfdale, but the four companies above are quite interesting as they all seem to trace some level of their heritage to the BBC. And three of them also appear to have Pro Audio speaker lines. Are their designs similar in nature? Do they all sound somewhat the same? Do they all have similar levels of quality, or does one or the other stand out?

Please share your knowledge about these four speaker companies and your opinion of their sound signatures and product quality.

Thank you

jpipes

Showing 2 responses by jpipes

jpipes OP
24 posts
 

Hello and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I am not posting with the intent to purchase, I am simply interested to learn more about this hobby. I find it interesting there are so many UK speaker companies. I wonder what their distinctions are? Have they shared engineers over the years? Is one company significantly different from another in regards to their sonic approach?

Currently I own Dynaudio, KEF, and Focal speakers in different systems. I love learning about new things in this hobby. I'm just curious if there may be others willing to share.

All the best.

jpipes OP
24 posts
 

@nickofwimbledon -Thank you so much for your generous and informative response. This is all very interesting and helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience!

@hilde45 -In this instance I am curious to learn more about these four brands in particular. They seem to offer similarly sized traditionally shaped speakers at similar price points and share some of the same background pedigree. And there is not really much out there in the hifi press or online review community on YouTube for these brands.

Much has been written and reviewed about Harbeth. It is arguably one of the speaker brands that is easiest to learn about.

I've owned and used several Tannoy speakers at home and in professional applications through the years and realize Fyne must share some of their characteristics as the engineers for Fyne came from Tannoy.

@sealegs -Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I've often wondered about ProAc and Spendor as compared to Dynaudio. It seems maybe ProAc is slightly more forward or exciting in nature in presentation than the typical Dynaudio sound? 

 

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