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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 sealegs

sealegs
17 posts
 

I haven’t heard Spendor, PMC, or ATC.  But I’ve owned ProAc Response 2 speakers since the day they were introduced in the US 30 years ago.  High quality stands are essential and a lot of attention is needed upstream to keep them from being too forward.  But now that I’ve worked out those issues, I’m not sure how I could improve the sound quality in my modestly sized listening room.  Even at moderate listening levels (mid-70 db), it’s not apparent that the sound is coming from the speakers.  The other side of my room is music, each instrument or singer in their own place.  

About 2 years ago, the surrounds on my speakers finally gave in.  I had no idea what I would have needed to buy to come close to what I’ve been enjoying over those years.  I replaced the mid/woofers rather than try to find something as good or maybe better than the R2’s.  

sealegs
17 posts
 

I don’t audition audio equipment much anymore.  But I have heard Dynaudio minitowers in the past few years and IMO they were not in the same class as ProAc.  Different electronics, in-store demo, etc., but I had no interest in them.

FYI, there is a ProAc Speakers user group on Facebook that gets a reasonable amount of traffic.  

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